Joel Blatt

Experience

Senior level scientist and technical leader/manager with a 29-year track record of successful dry reagent and immunoassay invention and development (reflectance and fluorescence), plus manufacturing process development, scale-up and trouble-shooting. Experienced in medical diagnostics and clinical laboratory R&D (early stage start-up to final product); technology and intellectual property evaluation; grant proposals; report and document writing; international and interdisciplinary R&D collaboration. Skilled in biochemistry, colloid and surface chemistry, statistical design of experiments, design of plastic disposable test parts, integrating analytical chemistries with instruments. Accomplished teacher (biochemistry, chemistry and biology).

I grew up in New York City in the ‘40s and ‘50s and went to Brooklyn College for my BS in Chemistry (minor in Biology). On to graduate school in biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) and then to a postdoc at Purdue (molecular biology – before the days of recombinant DNA). Then to a 13-year stint teaching and doing research at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN; fled to industry (medical diagnostics) in Elkhart, IN, at Miles Laboratories (Bayer Diagnostics) – focused on tests for self-monitoring of blood glucose (worked with emulsions, dispersions and thin film coatings). Exiled to San Francisco Bay Area in California about 22 years ago and got caught up in the entrepreneurial spirit (and stress) of the place. I co-founded a company that developed an at-home HbA1c test (quantitative) that is now sold in major drug stores throughout the US went on to work in a specialty clinical lab (Berkeley HeartLab) for several years on high resolution cholesterol subfraction testing for assessment of cardiovascular risk. I’ve also worked in and also consulted with several other start-up and late start-up companies in the field of in vitro medical diagnostics. I am now involuntarily retired and trying to keep a consulting business going, but mostly have time on my hands when my wife lets me.

My interest in global warming started seriously back when I was at Meharry and had a subscription to Science. I became fascinated with the articles that were being written both there and in other sources that confirmed a suspicion that I had in the back of my mind. Based on my knowledge of chemistry, it was clear to me that we as a global society were on an unsustainable course where burning fossil fuels would eventually reach the point where (1) they would run out and (2) there would be drastic impacts on the atmosphere and global energy budget. I’m not an aficionado of computer modeling although I have used modeling in my research and development activities and am quite familiar with computer programming (started programming back in the ‘60s at Wisconsin and have continued since). My personal experience, having lived a good chunk of my life in the Midwest, has been one of increasing awareness of global warming. Winters were seeming to become milder and spring coming earlier the longer I lived there – although the recent extreme weather has introduced “volatility” into the trend (just like the stock market…..). Of course, the current drought in California is also evidence of climate change. I’m trying to do my part (installed solar electric panels on my roof and convinced three of my neighbors to follow suit, purchased an electric vehicle and have new low-flush toilets – all that kind of good stuff). But I feel the urge to do more.