The Center for Global Public Safety held the third annual CGPS Industry Forum on Thursday, April 1, 2021. The virtual format this year allowed for a wide audience of industry and academic partners from across various fields and different countries. This year’s theme was COVID-19 Pandemic Response & Readiness. There were attendees from the health field as well as fire protection, water security and energy. There were also representatives from universities in eight different African countries participating in the event.
The keynote address was delivered by John F. Kelly ’82, VP, Quality Operations and Environment, Health and Safety at Pfizer. He chronicled Pfizer’s rapid response to vaccine development and highlighted the safety measures taken throughout to ensure quality control at all points in the process.
The Academic-Industry Panel discussion was moderated by Peterson Family Dean of Arts & Science, Jean King. The theme was Perspectives on the Pandemic and Readiness Moving Forward. Panelists shared their experiences of the COVID-19 Response from each of their organizations. Panelists included:
- Ron Lancaster, Boston Scientific, Director of Technology Partnerships
- Kevin Seaver, Cytiva, Executive General Manager Bioprocess Automation & Digital and Executive General Manager Bioprocess Program Management
- Assistant Prof. Kai Zhang, WPI Robotics Engineering
- Assistant Prof. Jane Li, WPI Robotics Engineering
- Richard Schneider '79, Amphenol, Senior Advisor to the CEO
- Dr. Shola Odusanya, African University of Science and Technology, Abuja, Nigeria
The event closed with a brief presentation by Prof. Reeta Rao about the new Global Health graduate program offered through WPI’s Global School.
