2012 Assembly of Delegates Speaker
Susan B. Butts
Susan B. Butts
Retired
Former Senior Director of the External Science
and Technology Programs at Dow Chemical Company
Reflections on a Career in Industry
Dr. Susan Butts is an active member of the science and technology policy community following her 31 year career in the chemical industry and related organizations. Most recently she served at the President of the Council for Chemical Research, a non-profit organization whose purpose is to benefit society by advancing research in chemistry, chemical engineering, and related disciplines through leadership collaboration across discipline, institution, and sector boundaries. Before joining CCR she worked for The Dow Chemical Company for three decades in various positions in the Research and Development organization. From 2001 through 2009 she served first as Director of External Technology then as Senior Director of External Science & Technology Programs. In that capacity she was responsible for Dow's sponsored research programs at over 150 universities, institutes, and national laboratories worldwide and also for Dow's contract research activities with U.S. and European government agencies. She also had responsibility for U.S. recruiting and hiring for R&D. She worked on issues related to science policy and government funding for research and development from Dow's office in Washington, DC. She is past president of the University-Industry Demonstration Partnership, an organization in the National Academies which works to strengthen research collaborations between universities and industry. She is also a member of the Council of the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable in the National Academies and a member of the board of directors of the Alliance for Science and Technology Research in America. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the American Chemical Society, Sigma Xi, and the Association of Women in Science.
Dr. Butts holds the degrees of B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Michigan and Ph.D. in chemistry from Northwestern University. Before joining the External Technology group Dr. Butts held several other positions at Dow including Senior Resource Leader for Atomic Spectroscopy and Inorganic Analysis within the Analytical Sciences Laboratory, Manager of Ph.D. Hiring and Placement, Safety and Regulatory Affairs Manager for Central Research, and Principal Investigator on various catalysis research projects in Central Research.
Susan Butts' presentation from the 2012 Sigma Xi Annual Meeting