Adam Safir is a polymer chemist with 29 years of experience developing specialty polymers.  He earned his BS from UCSB, and his PhD from UCB.  In the past 16 years Adam has worked at the intersection of biology and material science, with a focus on sustainable materials.  Most recently he was the COO of Intropic Materials where the aim was to commercialize a nano-protectant polymer for enzymes, to allow their use in a variety of high temperature and solvent born system for the application of accelerated compostability of plastics, as well as biocatalysis.  Prior to that Adam was the VP of Strategy and Projects at Zymergen where he managed a $25M DARPA project focused on bioproduction of raw materials and development of novel products, ran the project management team, and oversaw the expansion plans for the group and a whole.  Before this Adam spent two and a half years at Aymis as head of their product development R&D team.  In Adam’s first 13 years in industry he worked at Symyx Technologies, most recently as the Director of Performance Materials, where he focused on the design, construction, and use of High Throughput workflows for polymer R&D, across the breadth of polymer application.