Chris Weikart
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Weikart brings 25 years of R&D experience in driving research programs, creating new materials, developing new products, and identifying future research initiatives. He has managed R&D organizations in both North America and Europe.
Dr. Weikart has developed innovative technology in the fields of food and beverage packaging, solar encapsulation, thermal foam insulation, architectural windows, lithium-ion batteries, optical devices, extended wear contact lenses, laboratory consumables and parenteral packaging for biologics. He graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a PhD in chemical engineering with a specialty in materials science, interfacial science and thin film technology. His graduate work included a DARPA project in collaboration with the United States Air Force to eliminate lead-based paints on aircraft components. He also worked on an R&D project in support of Cibavision’s commercialization of their first extended wear contact lenses called Focus Day & Night.
After graduate school, Dr. Weikart joined The Dow Chemical Company’s Central Research Center in Midland, Michigan. He started as a senior researcher honing his skills in new product development, project management, collaborative external research, and intellectual property. After working on over a dozen different R&D project initiatives and earning 6 technical advancement awards at Dow, he was promoted to lead the emerging lithium-ion battery materials program at Dow. This included managing R&D activities in Midland, Michigan as well as a startup company acquisition in Lausanne, Switzerland that invented a new cathode material for higher energy density batteries.
Dr. Weikart joined SiO2 Materials Science as Director of R&D in December of 2011. He assembled a technical team to develop the first hybrid parenteral containers for biologic drugs. Dr. Weikart helped to expand the company’s product portfolio to include blood collection tubes for liquid biopsies, baby bottles and laboratory consumables based on the company’s core technology. Dr. Weikart has produced 12 granted patents, 13 peer-reviewed technical journal articles and dozens of presentations at trade shows and conferences across the globe. He earned a Six Sigma Black certification during his career at The Dow Chemical Company.
