1st Open Plastic Symposium

Nitin Vaish

Nitin Vaish is a seasoned product and strategy leader in the climate-tech sector. Over the past 20+ years, he has built and grown businesses in Fortune 500 companies and start-ups in solar, energy storage, materials, hydrogen, and the food / ag sector.

Nitin has held leadership roles at SunPower, GE, Celanese, Mori, Bloom Energy, and H2U Technologies and has led cross-functional teams, worked with board members, and successfully executed ‘0 to 1’ and ‘1 to 10’ growth initiatives. He has been part of teams that have raised ~$100 million in equity across multiple companies.

An inventor on 10 US patents, Nitin is a graduate of IIT Bombay, Northwestern University, and MIT Sloan School of Management.

Adam Guss

Adam Guss is a Genetic and Metabolic Engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign in the Department of Microbiology in 2006 studying the electron transport pathways used by members of the Archaea to produce methane. His current research utilizes genetics and synthetic biology to engineer microbes to convert lignocellulosic plant biomass into liquid fuels and other value-added products, with a particular emphasis on cellulose-degrading bacteria such as Clostridium thermocellum and aromatic-catabolizing organisms such as Pseudomonas putida. Within the Agile BioFoundry, he co-leads the Host Onboarding and Development sub-task and the Ethanol sub-task.