Mrs. Sarah Smit, Director, Laboratory Operations, has been employed at Nelson Laboratories for over 16 years overseeing many departments focused on testing of medical devices and safeguarding global health which include Protective Barriers, Product Sterility (cleanroom and isolator), Bioburden, Bacterial Endotoxin, Particulates, Chemistry and Microbiology. Sarah spent the first 13 years at Nelson in the Protective Barriers section and was the Senior Lab Operations Manager during COVID and high demand of face mask testing. Sarah has experience bringing new test offerings, improving test methods, managing extreme fluctuations in workload, improving processes and customer experience. Sarah has been active in ASTM and AAMI standards committees for over 10 years and has been the sub-chair of the F23.40 ASTM biological committee for 5 years. In this role she helps oversees the standards for medical face masks and gowns and lead standard development and improvements for testing medical protective clothing. She received a BS in biology from the University of Utah.

Panel Speakers

Mr. Eric Fu is the founder and managing director of Aimwell, an Australian company specializing in the design, manufacture, and market of respiratory devices for breathing protection, breathing training, breathing measurement and diagnostics. With over 25 years of experience in the respiratory device industry, Eric is an accomplished mechatronics engineer, product designer, and serial entrepreneur. His core competencies include research and development, design for manufacturing, and marketing of technology-based products with proven track records.  Eric founded Aimwell Pty Ltd in 2017 with a mission to improve people’s breathing quality in work and life by delivering world-class and affordable breathing products through continuous innovation in design, manufacturing, and marketing. Previously, Eric co-founded PAFtec, where he led the invention and development of CleanSpace, an industry game-changing brand of powered respirators. Prior to that, he worked as a senior electronics designer at ResMed for 10 years, contributing to the product design for a few generations of ResMed CPAP devices. Eric is passionate about helping people breathe safer and better by creating solutions that address the challenges and opportunities in the personal respiratory protection, breathing training and diagnostic market.

Dr. Mehdi Shirmohammadi, Director of Termeh Filtration in UAE, has more than 20 years of experience (academic and industrial) in air filtration textiles, nanofibers and respiratory masks. Mehdi is a recognized expert in textile fibers, high-efficiency filter media, and antibacterial adsorbents, involved in co-leading standard development committees at the ISIRI in writing standards for respiratory masks. During his air purification research, he worked through the chain of air cleaning processes from polymers, textile fibers, filter media, filter elements, filtration systems, testing instruments, and standardization. He has been focused on antimicrobial adsorber filter media since 2010 and has some patents and publications. Mehdi received his Ph.D. in Textile (chemistry and fibers sciences) from IAU, Iran. He is a Certified Filtration and Separation Specialist (CFSS) for air filtration, awarded as WFI’s Student of the Year in 2022.

Ms. Kathleen Owen, ASHRAE Fellow and Distinguished Lecturer, is an expert in air filter/cleaner filtration efficiency and test method development. She is an ASHRAE Standard 241 & EHC member, Chair of SPC 185.5 and TG2.RAST, Past Chair of ASHRAE 52.2 and SPCC 145.  She has more than 30 years in air cleaner testing and method development as well as several areas of IAQ and aerosol research. She also developed chamber test methods for gases and bioaerosols based, in large part, on the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) CADR test method.She ran the air cleaner testing lab at RTI for over 20 years and is now a consultant. She earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University and her M.S. in Air Pollution Control Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.