Julia L. Shamshina

After gaining relevant experience during her doctoral (2008, PhD in Organic Synthesis) and postdoctoral (2010, Analytical Chemistry) studies at The University of Alabama, Dr. Shamshina joined Streamline Automation, LLC (Huntsville, AL), a small business where she worked on the development and commercialization of advanced technologies for aerospace and defense markets, supported by the US Air Force, Army, and NASA. She is a recipient of the NASA Tech Brief Award for her work on the replacement of hydrazine fuel with energetic ionic liquids (2011). In 2012, Dr. Shamshina joined the start-up company 525 Solutions, Inc. as a Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). She gained extensive experience in developing the company’s technological backbone ‘from the ground up’, ensuring the implementation and commercialization of many scientific solutions. In 2016 — 2017, Dr. Shamshina moved to Canada (McGill University, Department of Chemistry) to work as an Academic Associate in Green Chemistry where she was responsible for the projects related to the design and development of new products from renewable polymers. During her engagements at McGill, she continued to be involved with 525 Solutions, and when the joint venture, Mari Signum Mid-Atlantic, LLC was formed to build a chitin extraction plant in the USA, based on sustainable zero waste shrimp farming, Dr. Shamshina accepted its management position, as a CSO. At Mari Signum Mid-Atlantic, LLC, Dr. Shamshina oversaw the development of marketable, patentable concepts involving chitin to generate intellectual property for the company. Dr. Shamshina is a recipient of the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Challenge Award Focus Area 2, Greener Reaction Conditions for “A Practical Way to Mass Production of Chitin: The Only Facility in the U. S. to Use Ionic Liquid-Based Isolation Process”. Since 2017 to present, she has also served as an Adjunct Assistant Research Personnel at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Office of Arts and Sciences The University of Alabama. In 2021 she joined Texas Tech University, Department of Plant and Soil Science, Fiber and Biopolymer Research Institute. Dr. Shamshina’s current research interests focus on all aspects of ionic liquids and biopolymer processing, from fundamental properties to overall material preparation to industrial applications. She is particularly interested in potential industrial uses of biopolymers in high-value materials, with an ultimate goal of elimination of synthetic plastics.