TAMEST 2026 Annual Conference Speakers

TAMEST 2026 Annual Conference speakers and sessions will explore real-world, scalable climate solutions and collaborative problem-solving for sustainability in medicine, engineering, science and technology. Learn more about the 2026 annual conference speakers below.

2026 Annual Conference Speakers

More speaker bios are coming soon.

David Allen, Ph.D. (NAE)

Norbert Dittrich-Welch Chair in Chemical Engineering

Co-Director, Center for Energy and Environmental Systems Analyses

The University of Texas at Austin

David Allen, Ph.D., is the Norbert Dittrich-Welch Chair in Chemical Engineering and the Co-Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Systems Analyses at The University of Texas at Austin. His research addresses the chemistry and engineering associated with managing air quality, and for the last 15 years he has focused primarily on improving the understanding of greenhouse gas emissions from energy systems. He directs the State of Texas Air Quality Research Program. In 2017, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. In 2020, his work on methane emissions from oil and gas supply chains was recognized with the ENI Energy Transition Award. He has served on a variety of governmental advisory panels and from 2012 to 2015 chaired the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board. He has won teaching awards at The University of Texas and UCLA and the Lewis Award in Chemical Engineering Education from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Andrew S. Bowman, Ph.D.

Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine

The Ohio State University

As an expert in viral infectious diseases, veterinary public health and epidemiology, Andrew S. Bowman, Ph.D., oversees a research team that focuses on zoonotic infectious diseases. He leads applied field research projects investigating the epidemiology of influenza in animal populations and transmission across the animal-human interface. Some of his team’s most recent work has investigated highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 in cattle. Before his return to academia, Dr. Bowman was a practicing veterinarian focused on food animal production.

Elizabeth Matsui, M.D.

Professor of Population Health and Pediatrics

Associate Dean for Faculty Academic Affairs

Director, Center for Health and Environment: Education and Research

Dell Medical School

The University of Texas at Austin

Elizabeth Matsui, M.D., is a Professor of Population Health and Pediatrics, Associate Dean for Faculty Academic Affairs and Director of the Center for Health and Environment: Education and Research at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin. She is a pediatric allergist-immunologist and epidemiologist and a leading international expert on environmental exposures and their effects on asthma and other allergic conditions. She received her undergraduate degree in molecular biology and her medical degree from Vanderbilt University. She completed her residency in pediatrics at the University of California at San Francisco in 1996. She joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins in 2003 and was promoted to Professor in 2015 before joining the faculty at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin in 2018.

Marcia McNutt, Ph.D. (NAS)

President

National Academy of Sciences

Marcia McNutt, Ph.D., is a geophysicist and the 22nd president of the National Academy of Sciences. From 2013 to 2016, she was editor-in-chief of Science journals. Dr. McNutt was director of the U.S. Geological Survey from 2009 to 2013, during which time USGS responded to a number of major disasters, including the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. For her work to help contain that spill, Dr. McNutt was awarded the U.S. Coast Guard’s Meritorious Service Medal.

Dr. McNutt received a B.A. in physics from Colorado College and her Ph.D. in Earth sciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, Geological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the International Association of Geodesy. Dr. McNutt is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, UK, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy. In 1998, Dr. McNutt was awarded the AGU’s Macelwane Medal for research accomplishments by a young scientist, and she received the Maurice Ewing Medal in 2007 for her contributions to deep-sea exploration.

Gerald W. Parker Jr., D.V.M., Ph.D.

Director, Biosecurity and Pandemic Policy Center

Associate Dean for Global One Health

Texas A&M University

Gerald W. Parker Jr., D.V.M., Ph.D., is a nationally recognized leader in biodefense, global health security and public health preparedness. With more than 36 years of federal public service—including 26 years on active duty in the U.S. Army—he has held senior executive leadership roles across the Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

His leadership experience includes serving as Commander and Deputy Commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at HHS and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Chemical and Biological Defense at DOD.

Dr. Parker has played pivotal roles in coordinating federal responses to major public health emergencies, including the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, Hurricanes Katrina through Alex and the Haiti earthquake. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he rejoined federal service as Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.

Currently, Dr. Parker serves as Director of the Biosecurity and Pandemic Policy Center at the Bush School of Government & Public Service and Associate Dean for Global One Health at the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences at Texas A&M University. In 2025, he was once again called to federal service on detail from Texas A&M, serving as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Biosecurity and Pandemic Response within the National Security Council.

A respected voice in national policy, Dr. Parker has testified before Congress and served on influential boards, including the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense, the Defense Science Board Permanent Subcommittee for Threat Reduction and as Chair of the NIH National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity.

His contributions have earned him numerous honors, including the Distinguished Executive Presidential Rank Award, the Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service and the Senator Melcher Leadership in Public Policy Award. Dr. Parker holds degrees from Texas A&M University, Baylor College of Medicine and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.

Desirée Plata, Ph.D.

School of Engineering Distinguished Climate and Energy Professor

Director, Parsons Laboratory

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Dr. Desirée Plata’s research seeks to maximize technology’s benefit to society while minimizing environmental impacts in industrially important practices through the use of geochemical tools and chemical mechanistic insights. Dr. Plata earned her doctoral degree in Chemical Oceanography and Environmental Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Joint Program in Oceanography (2009) and her bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Union College in Schenectady, NY (2003). Plata is an NSF CAREER Awardee (2016), an Odebrecht-Braskem Sustainable Innovation Awardee (2015), a two-time National Academy of Engineers Frontiers of Engineering Fellow (2012, 2020), a two-time National Academy of Sciences Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow (2011, 2013), a Caltech Resnick Sustainability Fellow (2017), and winner of MIT’s Junior Bose Teaching Award (2019), Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award (2021) and Perkins Graduate Advising Award (2021). Having previously served as John J. Lee Assistant Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Yale University and Associate Director for Research at the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at Yale, Dr. Plata is now Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT, Co-Director of the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium and Faculty Lead of Belonging, Achievement, and Composition in the MIT School of Engineering. Dr. Plata directs MIT’s Methane Network, serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Spark Climate and served on the National Academy of Science Engineering and Medicine’s Atmospheric Methane Removal study (recused). Plata is Co-Founder of Nth Cycle (nthcycle.com), co-founder and President of Sustainable Chemical Resource Advisors LLC and Co-Founder and President of Moxair Inc.

Yevgeny Raitses, Ph.D.

Principal Research Physicist

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

Yevgeny Raitses, Ph.D., is a Principal Research Physicist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) with expertise in experimental plasma physics. His more than 260 publications are on physics of crossed-field plasma devices, plasma-surface interactions, low temperature plasma and its applications to plasma propulsion for satellites, synthesis and processing of nanomaterials, and plasma diagnostics. Dr. Raitses received his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in 1997. He joined PPPL in 1998. His current research interests include gentle processing of two-dimensional and quantum science materials, advanced plasma propulsion, and plasma diagnostics for semiconductor manufacturing. Dr. Raitses leads several projects and initiatives at PPPL including the DOE-funded Microelectronics Science Research Center project PlasMat2D (https://sites.google.com/pppl.gov/elmic/projects/plasmat2d) and Princeton Collaborative Low Temperature Plasma Research Facility (PCRF, https://pcrf.pppl.gov), advanced plasma propulsion physics (https://htx.pppl.gov), plasma-based nanosynthesis and nanofabrication of materials (https://nano.pppl.gov), including the most recent DOE-Microelectronics Science Research Center project on Plasma-Enabled 2D Materials for Energy-Efficient Microelectronics (PlasMat2D) project (https://www.pppl.gov/news/2024/pppl-leading-two-chips-and-science-act-projects). Dr. Raitses is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Among many honors, Dr. Raitses received PPPL’s Kaul Foundation Prize for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research and Technology Development in 2019. He is also PPPL Distinguished Research Fellow since 2024.

Rawand Rasheed, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Helix Earth

Rawand Rasheed, Ph.D., is the CEO and Co-Founder of Helix Earth, a startup developing breakthrough HVAC retrofit solutions that cut air conditioning energy use while improving indoor health in buildings. He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Rice University and has more than five years of experience at NASA, first as a graduate research fellow and then as a Life Support Systems Engineer where he developed a patented no-touch distillation system for spacecraft water recovery. Under his leadership, Helix Earth has raised $7.3 million in venture funding and $2.3 million in non-dilutive support from agencies such as NSF and DOE. The company has received recognition on the national stage, with Dr. Rasheed himself named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in Energy, ACHR 40 Under 40 and the ASME Mechanical Engineering Magazine Watch List in 2025.

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