Shenda Baker '85

Dr. Baker is the President and COO of Synedgen, and a member of its Board of Directors. Since 2005, she was a cofounder and President of BioSTAR West, which merged into Synedgen in 2009. She led the research and development of the current polysaccharide platform of products that target important diseases of the lungs and gastrointestinal tract. She currently directs the science, regulatory, and manufacturing teams at Synedgen and serves as the scientific contact to outside collaborators and sponsors.

Dr. Baker was a Professor of Chemistry at Harvey Mudd College for over 20 years, before taking a leadership role at Synedgen. Dr. Baker was awarded the CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation and Presidential Early Career Award from the Department of Energy. She served on the Board of Directors of the Materials Research Society and is an active advisor to the NSF, having served on the Advisory board of three different Directorates, to the DOE, and numerous academic institutions on scientific, strategic planning, and management issues. She is currently on the NIH Advisory Council to the National Institute of Dental and Cranofacial Research

Dr. Baker received Bachelor degrees in Chemistry and French from Grinnell College, and earned a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology.  She completed Postdoctoral Research at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Her research expertise includes understanding how polymers interact at surfaces and interfaces, using polymer rheology, neutron scattering techniques, polymer physical characterization, polysaccharide modification and analysis, and nanoscale manipulation of diblock-copolymers for biosensors and arrays; she is co-inventor of the technology platform of Synedgen. She has more than 50 publications and 15 patent applications reflecting this research.