Our guest, Erin McConahey, is a Principal in Mechanical Engineering with Arup, an employee-owned global engineering, advisory and planning consulting firm that focuses on all aspects of the built environment. Erin’s passion for finding integrated design solutions through a collaborative design process began with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Structural Engineering from UC Berkeley. As she rose in leadership, she has served on Arup’s global Trustee Board, was named to be one of 40 Arup Fellows responsible for uplifting technical excellence within the firm, spearheaded the startup of its Americas Region Diversity and Inclusion Initiative, and served on the leadership teams for a number of capacity-building training programs. In addition to project work, she now leads Arup’s global initiative around adopting Whole Life Carbon approaches to both new construction and existing building decarbonization. Erin is a Professional Engineer in California and Colorado and during her 26 years with Arup, Erin has been responsible for the design leadership of many significant projects, including projects here in LA such as the Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine, the LA Memorial Coliseum Renovation, the Broad Museum and the Broad Contemporary Art Museum at the LACMA as well as many others. Episode Breakdown 00:00 - 28:32: What’s engineering, sustainability and why do they matter? The history of sustainability and how we got to this point. Being an ethical engineer and the need for imagination in engineering. 28:32 - 41:24: From Summer Camp to Graduate Engineer, Structural vs Mechanical Engineering, Design and the Built Environment. Soft Skills are a must for engineers. Professionalism and the application of knowledge. 41:24 - 56:46 The workings of corporate engineering, Becoming a corporate agent of change, The necessity of teamwork and collaborative design, Sustainability through community building. Leadership vs Followership. 56:46:- 1:12:54: what does it mean to be in sustainability and where do we start? , corporate social responsibility vs personal responsibility, The power of environmental commitments, and the synergy of policy, science, and engineering. The Cost of climate change. Why do we need gender equality to save the earth? 1:12:54- 1:30:54: The tactics of corporate knowledge building, Mushroom Bricks!, The “art” of building art museums, Role models growing up, playing the organ, Albert Schweitzer, Building your utopian institution for sustainable community building, the importance of grassroots causes.

Dr. Anthony Casarez is a California native, a sought-after and talented “Molecular Architect”. An expert in organocatalysis by research during his Ph.D. in the laboratory of David MacMillan, the 2021 Nobel prize laureate in Chemistry. He completed his undergrad at SFSU, did his Master's in Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, and then joined Gilead Sciences, working for 2 years on HCV therapy (before pursuing his Ph.D.). He then came back to the Bay to work on antibiotics at Novartis in Emeryville, where he was also involved in search and evaluation and due diligence for the Novartis Venture Fund. In 2019 Anthony joined Gossamer Bio to lead an immuno-oncology program, where he holds the current title of Associate Director. He is also an industry advisor for CLSI and works with a non-profit called Health Technology Forum. Episode Breakdown 0:00-20:18 Defining failure, making an amazing scientist, and how to date using the scientific method. 20:18-40:37 “Where’s Princeton?!”, What’s organocatalysis? The trials and tribulations of research and entering the “real world”. 40:37- 1:01:55 Research in Industry vs Academia, “Don't Look Up” and the global perspectives on science, the importance of scientific communication 1:01:55-1:12:35 Drug Design vs Development, Start-ups vs Larger Corporations, and how to be a scientific leader. 1:12:35-1:24:20: Childhood and being a budding chemist, The importance of role models, “Engineering” in the household, Utopian thoughts on research. 1:24:20-1:34:58: Closing Thoughts; “Science is true whether we believe it or not.”, Fear of silence, What’s your minor superpower? Follow the Fancy Labcoat Guild on Instagram (https://instagram.com/thefancylabcoatguild?utm_medium=copy_link) This episode is sponsored by Sci Find–the scientific collaboration network (www.scifind.net)

Dr. Victoria Piunova is a world-class polymer chemist with a boatload of accomplishments. As CTO at her current company Loliware, she’s disrupting the plastic industry with her seaweed-derived plastic analogues. Loliware has engineered a new category of high-performance products designed to disappear and be carbon negative at scale. By using seaweed to replace plastic at scale, Loliware is tapping into the power of seaweed to regenerate our ocean and contribute to the decarbonization of our planet. The status quo that single-use products should be ‘built to last’ is destroying our planet and Victoria is taking matters into her own hands in weaning us off of this toxic material dependence. She’s got her Ph.D. from USC, and completed her postdoc at CalTech, and has had an illustrious career at IBM Research where holds the prestigious title of “master inventor”. She’s also the recipient of the American Chemical Society’s Young Investigator and Young Industrial Polymer Scientist awards for her outstanding contributions to industrial innovation.

Science is often perceived as complex, formulaic, and insanely detailed–but did you ever think that it can be treated as an art? Designing experiments, thinking creatively, flowing through the material and immaterial to discover and mold the world we live in. Today, we've got Dr. Serhat Gumrukcu wearing the fancy lab coat. He's one of the founders of Enochian Biotech (a company focused on creating gene-modified cell therapies), and the current director of the Seraph Research Institute where he works on molecular virology and antiviral research in regards to HIV. He's an MD Ph.D. with a heightened philosophical perspective on the nature of science and its applications. He's definitely a pragmatist and an entrepreneur, with numerous patents under his name, and is constantly working on new therapeutics. He's a polyglot who speaks...get ready...9 languages! He's a man within whose veins flows a boundless curiosity of the scientific world and he's using that unique perspective to solve some of the most pressing medical problems in the industry.

The Fancy Labcoat Guild welcomes Dr. Louis Metzger. He's a top-tier protein biochemist (just one of his many specialties!) who's got his Ph.D. from Duke, worked on his Postdoc at UCSF, and at Novartis as an investigator. Louis is a real renaissance man, who does everything from running a Biotech thinktank, a consultancy, a mentor at IndieBio, an advisor for numerous scientific companies. He's a writer, a scientist, an entrepreneur, and a profound thinker. Join us for a deep dive into everything from Ph.D. life, to protein biochemistry to some discussions on the ethics of patents.

In our first episode, The Fancy Labcoat Guild welcomes Dr. Kris Tatiossian to the fold. She’s a scientific rockstar: a molecular biologist from USC’s Keck School of Medicine. We start from humble beginnings in entomology. We follow her through her PhD into the world of research with the groundbreaking CRISPR technology to ultimately creating her own educational platform-CRISPR Classroom. Learn about her journey and her positive approach to science in a very competitive space.