Dr. Cary Supalo, MBA, holds a PhD in Chemistry from Pennsylvania State University. His chemistry research interest centers around inorganic catalysis and surface science in relation to alternative fuel sources. His accessibility research interest centers on making the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) ecosystem more inclusive and accessible for the blind. He advocates for the full inclusion of persons with disabilities in STEM education and the workforce, and the economy and society at large with world leaders, policy-makers, and high-level decision-makers. He is an officer of the Science in Braille campaign at the United Nations.
As a PhD student, Cary served as principal investigator on the highly competitive National Science Foundation (NSF) SBIR grant, to develop the world’s first text-to-speech enabled scientific data logger, which he commercialized through the small business he founded, Independence Science. Today, Cary is a research developer at the Educational Testing Service (ETS), where he advises the GCO on accessibility compliance matters, and collaborates with key stake-holders to promote inclusion and equity for all test-takers. Dr. Supalo also serves as an honorary professor of chemistry at the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia, where he collaborates with Dr. Siegbert Schmid and colleagues to make the gateway first-year university lab curriculum accessible for blind students, to expand the field of options for blind students in K-12 STEM.