Courtney Owens

I'm a chemist by trade, having completed my PhD in chemistry at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities. I started with my current company back in 2019, which was originally Praxair but became Linde through a merger right around the time I joined. It was an interesting time to start - right before COVID and right in the midst of this merge of these very two big companies. I'm proud that I kind of navigated that and really made a lot of progress in aligning people and getting everyone on the same page. I'm based in the Buffalo, New York area at one of our major sites, but I work with a global team including colleagues in Munich, Germany, which means lots of early morning meetings. I've been in research and development for 7 years, with maybe one promotion to the senior level, but essentially on the same team since I started. I lead major programs for innovative commercialization of new materials in my field, which involves a lot of project management, communicating, aligning with people, and presenting to stakeholders. There's also a lab component where I can collect my own data when I have the chance, though my role has become more about administration, organization, meetings, and presentations. I work with chemical engineers and mechanical engineers to commercialize new materials and ensure the process is relevant and the manufacturing is successful. One of my most notable achievements is the current collaboration I'm working on, which involves both internal and external parties. I've been the ringleader to bring everyone together and stay focused, and we're probably nearly semi-commercial or really getting close to commercialization. In my 7 years, I've been able to walk with a program from the very initial start to what was maybe getting closer to commercialization, which has been really, really interesting.