Dr. Richard B. Kaner, Ph.D is Chair of Scientific Advisory Board and focuses on the design of new high-temperature materials and their synthesis by new chemical methods. Dr. Richard Kaner filed the world’s first graphene patent – U.S. Patent #6,872,330 – in May 2002, two years prior to the notable graphene work of Nobel laureates Geim and Novoselov. The patent is now held by Nanotech Energy. Dr. Kaner received his PhD in inorganic chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1984, carried out his postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley and joined UCLA in 1987 as an assistant professor. He became a full professor in 1991 and currently holds a joint appointment in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, as well as in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.He has received awards from the Dreyfus, Fulbright, Guggenheim, and Sloan Foundations, as well as the Exxon Fellowship in Solid State Chemistry and the Buck−Whitney Research Award from the American Chemical Society for his work on refractory materials, including new synthetic routes to ceramics, intercalation compounds, superhard materials, graphene, and conducting polymers.