Patricia McNeil is CEO of Westwood Aerogel. She is a materials science and engineering Ph.D. candidate at UCLA, where she also earned her B.S. She spearheaded the development of ambient drying for aerogels, which greatly improves the scalability of these materials. McNeil is a trainee in the National Science Foundation’s Innovation at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems program, through which she obtained a “Leaders in Sustainability” certification.