Guest Speaker – Polymer/Materials (CHEM 721) – April 20, 2023

Bio
Kolby White is currently a Product Development Specialist at 3M in the Industrial Adhesives and Tapes Division’s Electronics Bonding Laboratory. Kolby joined 3M in 2017 after receiving her PhD in Organic Chemistry from MIT under the advisement of Professor Mohammed Movassaghi. At 3M, Kolby has been leading efforts in designing new resins, specifically focusing on materials with urethane-like properties. Kolby is a foundational member of the Materials Informatics team in 3M’s Corporate Research Lab, leading new user engagement as well as exploring automated sample preparation and analysis. Recently, Kolby has continued her efforts in adhesive development through supporting multiple curable materials programs in electronics bonding. Kolby is very active in 3M technical community and her commitment to inclusion led to co-founding the 3M RISE symposium, a diversity-focused symposium for graduate students and post-doctoral scholars with the objective of creating a more inclusive pipeline for research and development hiring.

Abstract
At 3M, a diverse manufacturer of over 60,000 products, we rely on 51 technology platforms to maintain our position as a world leader in new and existing markets. Specialty chemical and materials development is central to much of what we do and allows us to stay perpetually innovative. 3M has been developing digital tools for data visualization and sharing, as well as advanced statistical and machine learning modeling specifically for materials development. This talk will provide examples of new resin development from lab to scale-up, a case study using digital tools to accelerate materials research, and finally a recent joint project with the University of British Columbia on streamlining adhesive testing.