Advisory Board
Purebase recognizes that environmentally responsible and ethical operations are its duty as a member of the local and global community. Our company prioritizes local employment, energy conservation, and consistently works to reduce waste. Many of our products are developed with recycled and compostable materials that contribute to their organic certification. We are committed to producing environmentally friendly organic agricultural amendments through sustainable green practices.
Board of Advisors
Dr. Karen Scrivener
Founder Of The Nanocem Consortium.
Dr. Scrivener graduated from Cambridge University in Materials Science in 1980 and went on to earn her PhD in Materials Science from Imperial College London. She was a Senior Scientist and Head of Calcium Aluminates Department for the Central Research Laboratory of Lafarge in France, and head of the Laboratory of Construction Materials in the Institute of Materials Science and Engineering at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland. She has spent the majority of her life researching, speaking, and authoring reports on the most viable low-emission, sustainable cements for future construction throughout the world.
Newell R. Washburn, PhD
Associate Professor of Chemistry and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and CEO of Ansatz AI
Newell R. Washburn, PhD is Associate Professor of Chemistry and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and CEO of Ansatz AI. Prof. Washburn is an expert on machine learning and cheminformatics applied to complex materials applications. His primary focus at CMU centers the use of data-driven approaches to formulate cementitious binders with high SCM content and to design chemical admixture systems for their broad deployment, partnering with a broad range of chemical admixture and cement companies and the ARPA-E program in the Department of Energy. Prof. Washburn co-founded Ansatz AI to commercialize the hierarchical machine learning algorithm he and his collaborators developed at CMU for modeling and optimizing complex material systems based on sparse datasets. The company is currently working with clients in the US, Europe, and Japan on using chemical and materials informatics in product development and manufacturing. Prof. Washburn received a BS in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, performed doctoral research at the University of California (Berkeley) on the solid state chemistry of magnetic metal oxides, and then did post-doctoral research in chemical engineering at the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities).
Joseph Thomas
Cementitious Materials Consultant
In all, he has over 30 years of experience with cementitious materials, focusing on SCMs & Natural Pozzolans, blended cements, lightweight cements, ultrafine cementitious grouts, lightweight aggregates, and the remediation of non-spec waste products which have cementitious value. The majority of the commercial and soon to be commercial raw natural pozzolan products available in North America were developed under his guidance.