Catherine T. “Katie” Hunt
Over her nearly 30-year industrial career Dr. Hunt has served on a diverse set of advisory boards—from the Philadelphia Mayor’s Sustainability Board to The Global Cool Cities Alliance (>a decade)—from the Dept. of Chemical Engineering at MIT to the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) at RIT. She is passionate about energy – from conserving energy by mitigating heat to identifying alternate sources of energy – from championing the RetroFIT Philly: Coolest Block Project to working on the SunShot $1-a-Watt Program. In recognition of her business accomplishments, she was named one of the “Best 50 Women in Business” in Pennsylvania.
The former R&D Director, Innovation Sourcing & Sustainable Technologies at The Dow Chemical Company, she has a strong history of building multi-million dollar, federally funded, technology partnerships across industry, academia and national labs; partnerships that have delivered award-winning innovations.
Dr. Hunt’s chemistry degrees include a BA from Smith College and a PhD from University of California, Davis – she was chosen Alum of the Year by both. Katie began her career as a senior scientist in analytical research at Rohm and Haas after completing an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship at Yale University in MB&B (Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry). Katie held positions of increasing responsibility and ultimately served as their 1st Corporate Sustainability Director and Leader for Technology Partnerships. In 2009, Dow merged with Rohm and Haas.
Active in her profession, Dr. Hunt is a past president of the American Chemical Society (ACS), where she championed education, collaboration and innovation focused on the Sustainability of Energy, Food and Water. She is a Fellow of both ACS and AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science), and the current chair of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Math and Physical Sciences Advisory Committee (MPSAC).
Katie was drawn out of retirement, the first time, by the opportunity to teach future engineers how to thrive, not just survive in the world of work. She thoroughly enjoyed her time as the Brenton S. Halsey Distinguished Visiting Professor in Engineering at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.
Katie enjoys cycling for fun and fitness with family, friends, or solo, as necessary!
Bipin Shah
Mr. Shah serves as Technical Advisor to GCCA, and is currently President of WinBuild Inc, a private consulting firm. He has a B.S. and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering and over 20 years of experience in building energy efficiency research and technology advancement. He is a CEM-Certified Energy Manager, CBEP- Certified Business Energy Professional, CDSM – Certified Demand-Side Management Professional and National Fenestration Rating Council Certified simulator. He is currently a Board of Director of Cool Roof Rating Council and National Fenestration Rating Council. Through his company WinBuild and as a US-DOE consultant, he has worked internationally to develop and establish energy efficiency ratings programs and policies. He specializes in providing simulation trainings and for establishment of testing laboratory for building envelope, essential for implementation of Building codes and policies. He interacts internationally with industry, decision makers, technical experts, government officials and researchers, on work related to building envelope research, policies, technical services implementation and codes and standards development that creates demand for advanced emerging technologies.
Dr. Laurence S. Kalkstein
Dr. Kalkstein serves as a Technical Adviser to GCCA, and currently serves as a Professor within the Voluntary Faculty in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Dr. Kalkstein’s career has been dedicated to evaluating the impact of climate and climate variation on several environmental parameters, including human health, air quality, insect migration, and various climate change impact issues. He shared the Nobel Peace prize in 2007 with lead authors of IPCC working groups; Dr. Kalkstein’s group dealt with climate change and extreme weather impacts on human health and well-being. He heads the University’s Synoptic Climatology Laboratory, which is dedicated to evaluating the impact of weather situations upon various environmental features, and his work has been funded by a variety of federal government agencies, as well as NGOs, utility companies, and public health agencies. He and his research group are responsible for developing heat-health warning systems, used by the National Weather Service to issue advisories and warnings for over 30 cities in the United States, as well as 30 more major urban areas around the world.