Dr. Kim Chaffin is a Vice President, Bakken Fellow, and Technical Fellow at Medtronic, where she leads the development of next generation technologies across the company’s global businesses. An expert in material thermodynamics, polymer science, and structure-property relationships, her work has significantly advanced industry understanding of long term biostability and biocompatibility in medical devices. She is an inventor on more than twenty issued patents, a widely published researcher, and a respected industry voice who regularly advises policymakers at the state and federal levels. A gifted speaker known for making complex scientific and regulatory topics accessible and engaging, Dr. Chaffin holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan. She is a licensed Professional Engineer in the state of Minnesota.
Dr. Chaffin contributes to STEM advancement through her service on the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Board of Trustees and her advisory roles in academia. She returned to Minneapolis in late 2016 after a four year international assignment in Switzerland. Dr. Chaffin and her husband, Paul, President of Molex’s Medical and Pharmaceutical Solutions business, have two children: Cole, a Mechanical Engineer at Boston Scientific, and Julia, a senior studying Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan.