John Sirman is the Director for Emerging and External Technologies for Praxair, Inc. Praxair is the largest industrial gas company in North America and one of the largest worldwide. Praxair develops state-of-the-art technology to separate air into its atmospheric constituents as well as produces process gases such as hydrogen, carbon dioxide, syngas and helium. Praxair also develops and improve a variety of applications that use industrial gases, designed to support their customers in safe and more productive operations. In his role, Dr. Sirman works with external corporations, start-ups and academic or government institutes to support development and implantation of their technology into the Praxair business model. This can range from opportunities to improve production of the gas themselves such as more efficient turbomachinery to developing new applications to enhance patient wound care, improve food safety, enhance metal welding operation or increase life and performance of jet engines.
John joined Praxair as an R&D associate in 1998 and was tasked with developing new material to enable gas separation technology. Since then John has had a variety of positions within R&D, business development, business management and market development positions for Praxair. John has a B.Eng and PhD in materials science from Imperial College, London and an MBA from the University of Buffalo.