Tracie G. Sheehan, Technical Services at Mérieux NutriSciences

Tracie Sheehan is currently leading Technical Services at Mérieux NutriSciences (formerly Silliker) which provides our customers with auditing, consulting, training, and labeling services.  Prior to this role, she served as Chief Health, Quality & Sustainability Officer for ARYZTA for 7 years.  She previously worked for the Sara Lee Corporation as Senior Vice President of Food Safety and Scientific Affairs for 8 years and Kellogg Company for 11 years.  Tracie is a founding member of the Board of Directors for the Food Allergy Research and Resource Program (FARRP) at the University of Nebraska.  She has previously chaired the Scientific Advisory Committee of the American Meat Institute.  She served on the National Academy of Sciences Food and Nutrition Board, International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) Allergy and Immunology Institute, and ILSI Food Toxicology and Safety Assessment Committee.  She served on the Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Advisory Council and the National Center for Food Safety and Toxicology Advisory Council.  She received her Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of South Carolina and B.S. in Chemistry.

Simon HIRD, Ph.D, MRSC, CChem., Strategic Analyst, Research, Development and Advanced Testing, Waters Corporation

Simon Hird has worked for Waters since 2014 as a Principal Scientist, in the Food and Environmental Market area and now as a Strategic Analyst in Waters’ new Research, Development and Advanced Testing (RDAT) business unit. Simon is responsible for defining the requirements and advancing the technological and scientific strategy for Waters’ RDAT business within the F&E market segment. He also still contributes to scientific projects, is involved in the commercialisation of new technologies, and provides advice, training, and context to various parts of the Waters organisation and to customers globally. Simon has instructed on internationally recognised training courses, such as SARAF, GFoRSS and for AOAC India section. Simon continues to be invited to present at international conferences and has 25 peer-reviewed publications, including one of the most downloaded Trends in Analytical Chemistry articles, “Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry for the determination of chemical contaminants in food”. Prior to joining Waters, Simon spent almost 20 years at a government laboratory in the UK (now Fera Science Ltd), where he had various roles associated with residues testing and food authenticity before leading an LC-MS/MS team responsible for determination of residues and contaminants in food and environmental samples.