Summit Co-Chairs and Emcees

John L. Anderson is the President of Illinois Institute of Technology.  He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  His technical expertise is in chemical engineering, specifically membrane separations, coatings and colloidal suspensions, and polymers.  

His previous academic leadership experience includes Dean of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (1996-2004) and Provost/Executive Vice President at Case Western Reserve University (2004-07). 

He has chaired several boards and study committees for the National Research Council and has held visiting professorships at MIT (USA), University of Melbourne (Australia) and Landbouwuniversiteit Wageningen (the Netherlands).  He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Delaware and a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Alan Schriesheim, President and Founder, Chicago Council on Science and Technology, and Director Emeritus, Argonne National Laboratory

Alan Schriesheim is the founding president of the Chicago Council on Science and Technology (C²ST). C²ST, is an organization devoted to raising the awareness of science and technology in the Chicagoland area.

Schriesheim served as director of Argonne from 1983 to 1996. He joined Argonne after a long career with Exxon Corporation and was the first national laboratory director to be recruited from industry.

Schriesheim is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and a past chairman of the National Conference on the Advancement of Research. He holds a bachelor's degree from Brooklyn Polytechnic University in New York and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Pennsylvania State University.

Erin Dragotto, Managing Director, Chicago Council on Science and Technology

Erin Dragotto has a master’s degree in arts education and long-experience working with nonprofits. Prior to joining C2ST she was in educational outreach at the Adler Planetarium. She is well versed in developing working with granting organizations and has contacts with leaders in the Chicago-area nonprofit community.

Nora Lin, President, Society of Woman Engineers

Mrs. Nora Lin is a Senior Life member of SWE and currently serving as SWE FY10 President.  Prior to her current position, she has held various SWE leadership positions at local, regional and national levels.  Nora has broad working experience in engineering for more than 26 years in the defense industry.  She has held many technical lead and managerial positions in software engineering, advanced technology development, and systems engineering organizations.  Currently, she is the manager of Supportability engineering of Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.  Nora was a recipient of Women of Color in Technology Career Achieve Award in 2008 and Asian American Engineer of the Year Award in 2009.  In addition, she received numerous awards and recognitions from the SWE local section and Heartland Region.