Dr. Nabil Faruk received his PhD in Biophysical Sciences from the University in 2021 co-mentored by Drs. Tobin Sosnick and Benoit Roux and stayed on as a postdoc for two years with Dr. Sosnick. He then began his first industry role as a Senior Scientist in Computational Chemistry at QuantX Biosciences, a small molecule drug discovery startup, where he builds tools and predictive models for drug design.

Dr. Rachel Harris joined Argonne National Laboratory in 2023 as the Technical Project Manager (TPM) for Chain Reaction Innovations, an entrepreneurial fellowship program. Prior to Argonne, Rachel held various industry R&D roles in formulation and materials science capability development. Her research expertise spans a uniquely wide variety of projects and business sectors – from improving fuel economy in the transportation industry through corrosion protection to enabling a suite of digital products for color styling. In addition to her certification as a Project Management Professional (PMP), Rachel holds a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh, and she earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from Northwestern University as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. In 2021, Rachel was named a STEP Ahead Emerging Leader by the Manufacturing Institute.

Dr. Bennish earned his PhD in Molecular Engineering from the University of Chicago, where he conducted his doctoral research in the Hubbell Lab, focusing on the design of immunostimulatory polymers for cancer immunotherapy. He is now a senior scientist at ClostraBio, a UChicago spinout, where he leads efforts to advance colon-targeting polymers and micelles for treating lower gut diseases like ulcerative colitis.