Museum of Science, Boston Announces 2021 Appointments to its Board of Trustees and Museum Advisors

Press Release June 16, 2021

Five New Trustees and 19 Museum Advisors Appointed for Their Dedication to STEM Learning and Discovery


BOSTON, MA – The Museum of Science, Boston announced today the appointment of five new Trustees and 19 Advisors to its Board. The Museum’s nominating committee proposed these appointments, which were voted unanimously by the Board at its Annual Meeting on June 14. Appointments will take effect July 1, 2021.  The entire group of 49 leaders brings extensive experience in a broad range of fields.

The Museum’s Trustees serve as ambassadors of the Museum’s work and the delivery of its mission to inspire a lifelong love of science in everyone. They lead the Museum in concert with a wider group of Museum Advisors, industry and community leaders with a special interest in science, technology, and education who support the mission of the Museum. Nineteen new Museum Advisors were also appointed at the annual meeting and include Rahul Dhanda, Co-Founder of Sherlock Biosciences, Michael Gaines, Founder and Managing Principal of Gaines Biopharma Consulting LLC, and Rania Khalaf, Director of AI Platforms and Runtimes at IBM Research AI. These leaders form a larger cohort of Museum appointees being inducted onto the Board this year. A full list of all appointees can be found below.

“I am excited for our new Trustees and Museum Advisors to join us in our work supporting the Museum of Science,” said Board of Trustees Chair, Alexis Borisy, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of EQRx. “The combined years of leadership, innovation, and expertise in their respective fields will bring bright perspectives and strengthen our dedication to provide the Museum of Science, its staff, visitors, and community with empowerment and support.”

“Our Board of Trustees and Museum Advisors are comprised of leaders from a broad range of professional and personal backgrounds who come together with the common goal to build a Museum where everyone belongs,” said Tim Ritchie, President of the Museum of Science. “I am honored to welcome these new voices to our Museum to help us expand our reach in new ways, take our digital transformation to new heights, and foster the Museum’s unique role as community convener.”

2021 Museum of Science Museum Advisors Appointees:

  • Luciana Aquino-Hagedorn, Launchpad Venture Group
  • Juan Carmona, PhD, Philips Research North America
  • Priti Chatter, NetCapital
  • Rahul Dhanda, Sherlock Biosciences 
  • Michael Gaines, Gaines Biopharma Consulting LLC 
  • Cristina Gonzalez, Staples, Inc
  • Sue Graham Johnston, Juniper Networks 
  • Laurie Halloran, Halloran Consulting Group 
  • Aleksander Jonca, LumiraDx 
  • Pam Kaur, EMD Serono 
  • Rania Khalaf, IBM Research AI 
  • Michael Langer, Pear Therapeutics 
  • Debbie Millin, Globalization Partners 
  • Reinier Moquete, CyberWarrior.com 
  • Phil Rotner, Boston Children’s Hospital 
  • Don Schuerman, Pegasystems 
  • Esin Sile, PhD, Boston College 
  • Hermann Spicker, Brand Institute 
  • John Toomey, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management

2021 Museum of Science Board of Trustees Appointees:

Nilanjana Bhowmik

Nilanjana Bhowmik

Nilanjana Bhowmik, Co-Founder of Converge brings rigorous focus on B2B tech as a co-Founder of Converge, an early-stage venture capital firm, drawing on her 23 years as a venture capitalist, investment banker, and operating executive. Prior to founding Converge, Nilanjana was a General Partner at Longworth Venture Partners where she led the firm’s investments in enterprise tech. As an investment banker at Broadview (now Jefferies), Nilanjana executed numerous M&A transactions of leading enterprise tech companies and led the bank’s research publications of market maps on middleware, application, and security software.

Marcus DeFlorimonte

Marcus O. P. DeFlorimonte

Marcus O. P. DeFlorimonte, Owner and Managing Partner of Hampstead LLC is a real estate investor and developer in Boston, MA. Prior to building his real estate business, Marcus had a 20 plus year career in general management in the government and non-profit sectors. He managed programs and services for youth, adults, and senior citizens. He led collaborative efforts involving the non-profit, public, and private sectors to develop and implement comprehensive social, educational, and health services for diverse communities.

Cigall Kadoch

Dr. Cigall Kadoch

Dr. Cigall Kadoch, Associate Professor of Pediatric Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Epigenomics Program Co-Director at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard is an academic leader and entrepreneur in biomedical sciences. She is also the Scientific Founder of Foghorn Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FHTX). As one of the youngest scientists to ever be appointed to the Harvard Medical School faculty, Dr. Kadoch established her independent laboratory in 2014 at the age of 28, immediately following completion of her PhD studies at Stanford University. She is a leading expert in chromatin and gene regulation and is internationally recognized for her groundbreaking studies in these areas.

Rebecca Kantar

Rebecca Kantar

Rebecca Kantar, Head of Education and Entrepreneur in Residence at Roblox Corporation is an entrepreneur who founded and sold two technology companies. Roblox Corporation (NYSE: RBLX) acquired Ms. Kantar’s company, Imbellus, a simulation-based assessment technology company. At Imbellus, Ms. Kantar raised over $23M to develop and operationalize simulation-assessments that could measure deep thinking skills. At Roblox, a technology platform bringing the world together through play, Ms. Kantar leads internal assessment work and Roblox’s global education initiatives. Ms. Kantar previously founded and sold an expert-network to Gerson Lehrman Group.

Feng Zhang

Dr. Feng Zhang

Dr. Feng Zhang, molecular biologist, is a core member of the Broad Institute, an Investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, the James and Patricia Poitras Professor of Neuroscience at MIT, and a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator. Dr. Zhang is a molecular biologist focused on improving human health. He played an integral role in the development of two revolutionary technologies, optogenetics and CRISPR- Cas systems, including pioneering the use of Cas9 for genome editing and discovering CRISPR-Cas12 and Cas13 systems and developing them for therapeutic and diagnostics applications.