Commercializing Cleantech
UCalgary & Online
Wednesday October 9
4.45-7:30pm MST
Panelists from Switzerland and Alberta discuss the role of policymakers, industry leaders and academia in bringing innovations to scale.
Moderator
Prof. Ian D. Gates
Associate Vice President, Research and Innovation, University of Calgary
Prof. Gates worked for seven years in industry prior to joining the university in 2004. His research spans heavy oil and oil sands technology, hydrogen, methane, and material science of energy systems. Ian has also been entrepreneurial having been a co-founder of several companies including Gushor, Proton Technologies, Solideum, and several consulting companies. His research group’s motto: "save money, make money, save the environment, and save life".
Panelists
Ben Venter
Vice President, Energy Industries, ABB Canada
Ben Venter assumed the role in 2019. In his current role, he heads up the local division of Energy Industries that includes Oil, Gas, Refining, Chemicals, Water & Waste Water, Sustainable Energy and Power Generation. Ben is recognized as a specialist in business and service strategies, energy transformation, plant performance improvement, implementation of reliability concepts and business performance.
Dr. Valeria Mozzetti Rohrseitz
Head of Innovation Knowledge and Technology Transfer, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
​Dr. Mozzetti is an expert in fostering innovation and guiding early-stage startups towards successful financing and commercialization. A former start-up founder, Valeria has a profound view on deep-tech market opportunities and a keen sense on how to create impactful industry partnerships. Valeria actively contributes to the Swiss startup ecosystem as an expert for the Swiss Federal Innovation Agency (Innosuisse) and several foundations dedicated to supporting technology startups. Her extensive international experience spans Canada, England, the United States, and all linguistic regions of Switzerland, enriching her global perspective.
Dr. Milana Trifkovic
Professor in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary
Dr. Trifkovic serves as a Professor in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Calgary, where she also holds the UCalgary Research Excellence Chair and the Schulich Energy Momentum Director. The Trifkovic group specializes in advanced material design using complex fluids and soft matter templating techniques. They focus on converting waste into valuable materials, investigating materials far from equilibrium, and developing innovative methods to examine their structure-property relationships. Since 2015, Trifkovic has secured seven patents and co-founded the startup EnviCore, led by highly qualified personnel trained in her group.
