Plenary Keynote

Hubert Lim
Director, Earl E. Bakken Medical Devices Center; Bakken Professorship for Engineering in Medicine; Endowed Lions Professorship in Otolaryngology; Institute for Translational Neuroscience Scholar; Co-Director, Center for Neural Engineering; Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Otolaryngology

University of Minnesota

Korkut Uygun, PhD

Professor, Surgery
Harvard Medical School

Abstract: Organ transplantation is undergoing simultaneous revolutions in preservation technologies and new sources including xenotransplantation. This talk will review the cutting edge in organ cryopreservation, and discuss broader implications in the field of transplantation and organ engineering in general.

Bio: Dr. Uygun brings a unique crossover between process systems engineering and surgery to the field of biopreservation. His PhD work focused on integration of process design and control, and identification of threat events for petrochemical process industries, with a specialization on model predictive control. In 2006 he joined MGH/HMS as a postdoc for training on liver surgery and transplantation. In 2008 he was awarded the NIH Pathway to independence award to fund development of metabolic models of the liver to recover unusable organs for transplantation. Since then, he has built this effort into a major program for reengineering organs, which aims to ensure all donor organs are utilized for public good. His laboratory features a vertically integrated transplantation program with small and large animal transplantation and human liver pseudo-transplantation, as well as mass spectrometry based metabolomics and systems biology expertise. He is particularly well known in supercooled organ preservation, a project he started at the cell level and successfully translated to rodent and then human donor liver models. Dr. Uygun’s lab is supported by the NIH, NSF, DoD as well as industry. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed works and 10 patent applications among other scholarly works.

Shashank Priya, PhD
Vice President for Research and Innovation
University of Minnesota

Shashank Priya serves as the University of Minnesota’s vice president for research and innovation, overseeing a $1+ billion research enterprise. He manages research development and administration, technology commercialization, and corporate engagement, as well as 12 interdisciplinary academic centers and institutes. He has launched new initiatives around biosensing, biotechnology and biomanufacturing, geospatial science, national security, and data science. Previously, he served as associate vice president for research, and professor of materials science and engineering at Penn State. He has published over 500 academic journal articles and holds 12 patents. He holds degrees from Allahabad University and the Indian Institute of Science, and a PhD in materials engineering from Penn State.

Ken Washington, PhD
SVP, Chief Technology and Innovation Office
Medtronic

Ken Washington serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology and Innovation Officer. In this role, Ken is responsible for accelerating Medtronic innovation through product development and technology strategies.

Ken joined Medtronic in 2023 and brought with him deep expertise in leading technology development and execution across industries including robotics, consumer products, automotive, and space. Ken inspires teams and pushes them even further in their ability to invent, innovate and create positive market disruptions. He partners closely with teams and leaders around Medtronic to ensure our products and therapies continue to advance the Mission to better serve patients and customers.

Prior to joining Medtronic, Ken was Vice President and General Manager of Consumer Robotics at Amazon. Prior to that, he was Chief Technology Officer at Ford Motor Company, overseeing development of the company’s technology strategy including next-generation vehicle architectures, controls and automated systems. He also spent seven years at Lockheed Martin in various leadership roles including Chief Technology Officer, Chief Privacy Officer and Vice President, Advanced Technology Center, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company.

Ken is an internationally recognized thought leader on technology and innovation. He earned a Bachelor of Science, a Master of Science, and a PhD in nuclear engineering from Texas A&M University. He was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2020 and was inducted into the Black Engineer Hall of Fame in 2023.