Keynote Speaker

Christie Canaria, PhD, is a Senior Advisor to the CHIPS R&D Program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), supporting the development of core programs and policies. At NIST, Dr. Canaria is also an Interagency Policy Specialist providing executive leadership for federal, cross-agency initiatives to advance technology translation in the Lab-to-Market arena.

Prior to joining NIST, Dr. Canaria led I-Corps™ at the National Institute of Health (NIH), a program designed to support training to help project teams at NIH-funded small businesses overcome key obstacles along the path of innovation and commercialization. She was also a Program Director at the National Cancer Institute’s Small Business Innovation Research Development Center supporting a portfolio of technologies including biological imaging, biosensors, and nanotechnology. Prior to federal service, Dr. Canaria managed an optical microscopy facility at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and served as an imaging expert at the Caltech Biological Imaging Center, where she developed multi-dimensional and time-lapse confocal imaging techniques. Dr. Canaria also worked at biotech company Illumina, Inc. during its start-up and IPO stages. Additionally, Dr. Canaria was awarded the AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship and began science policy work in Washington, D.C. in 2013.

Dr. Canaria holds a PhD in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology and a BS in chemistry from the University of California – San Diego.