2026 Keynote Information

Keynote Speaker; Dr. Tyler Farnsworth

Dr. Tyler Farnsworth is an Intellectual Property and Commercialization Manager at Argonne National Laboratory and a USC Upstate Alumnus. He supports industry partnerships and technology commercialization for Argonne’s energy storage R&D programs, including as part of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science (ACCESS) team.

Prior to joining Argonne, Tyler was Co-Founder and Head of Technical and Product Development at MERGE Chemistry, an energy storage startup targeting additives for aqueous zinc batteries.

Tyler’s previous roles also include Research Scientist at Luna Innovations, Inc. where he was the technical and program lead for multiple SBIR/STTR projects across the Department of Defense.

Tyler holds a PhD in Polymers & Materials Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a 2015 recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program. He also holds a BS in Chemistry from the University of South Carolina Upstate.

His presentation will explore the unique intersection of business and science, where technologies grow from bench-scale demonstrations to scalable, commercial impact.