Charlie Bateman is the Senior External Relations Manager at Saint-Gobain Research North America. His activities range from managing relationships with academic partners through to finding materials and processing technologies of interest to Saint-Gobain. Of particular relevance are solutions related to what Saint-Gobain has identified as the Global Grand Challenges of the circular economy, electrification, connected objects & IOT, reduced carbon content solutions, human well-being & healthcare, and security & safety. Charlie has a PhD in materials science from Lehigh and has spent much of his career at Saint-Gobain leading a team responsible for materials characterization and engineering. He is passionate about identifying the relationships between materials chemistry and processing to understand and improve product performance. He has worked on everything from building products to advanced ceramics for harsh environments and specialty polymers for demanding applications.