Josh Palmer
Principal, Physical Sciences Investments at Kairos Ventures
Josh Palmer
Principal, Physical Sciences Investments at Kairos Ventures
Pasadena, California
Overview
Work Experience
Principal, Physical Sciences Investments
2021 - Current
I lead sourcing, due diligence, negotiation, and Board-level oversight of diverse early-stage companies, with a focus on opportunities across the physical and life sciences. In addition, I act as an executive manager at portfolio companies, and I play a management role on the Physical Sciences Investment team.
Investment Associate
2017 - 2021
As an individual contributor, I led sourcing, due diligence, negotiation, and Board-level oversight of diverse early-stage companies, with a focus on opportunities across the physical and life sciences.
Acting Chief Executive Officer
2021
Actinia develops technology to detect hard radiation such as gamma rays and X-rays. Perfected over many years of research and development in co-Founder Mercouri Kanatzidis’ laboratory at Northwestern, Actinia’s cutting-edge perovskite-based materials exhibit higher X-ray sensitivity, better gamma-ray energy resolution, and lower production costs than competing materials in the field. These semiconductor materials will facilitate a new generation of detector technologies across the nuclear energy, non-proliferation, and medical imaging sectors.
Product Management
2020
FastDetect is a tightly knit group of Caltech scientists, JPL engineers, and business leaders, but at heart, dreamers, envisioning how to alleviate pain and improve our world through innovation, hard work, and clear focus. Today, the obsessive focus is on alleviating pain brought by the Covid-19 pandemic. Tomorrow, FastDetect aims to improve the world through a paradigm shift in testing for pathogens and other ailments. FastDetect will enable this paradigm shift in testing through innovative diagnostic technology, allowing people to know immediately from the comfort, convenience, and safety of their homes, if they are infected to begin with and if so, by what pathogen specifically.
Board Member
2019 - 2022
Xidas is a next-generation industrial component company that provides a new breed of micro-devices for high-value markets such as telecom, aerospace, manufacturing, and medicine. Through a powerful new manufacturing paradigm (Amalga™), Xidas has surpassed the limitations of current micro-manufacturing, allowing the production of products that could not have been built before.
Product Manager
2017 - 2017
I worked with our team to make sure that the expert healthcare providers who would use our products got exactly what they needed from us, in terms of form, function, usability, and overall experience. In my role as a Product Manager, I synthesized information from marketing, R/D, QA/QC, and regulatory affairs to develop strategies for delivery of a final product that was up to spec and commercially viable.
Head of Research and Development
2014 - 2017
I took on a broad-based leadership role at Verrix, spearheading new research and development programs, discovering new business opportunities, and pursuing new sources of funding, as well as leading our regulatory affairs, QA/QC, and customer needs research efforts. As one of the first few employees at the company, I played a major role in developing the business plans, financial projections, and other critical documents that helped us to secure funding for our efforts.
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
2011 - 2014
Under the guidance of Professor Gerard Parkin, I studied the synthesis, bonding, and reactivity of new organometallic and coordination complexes, primarily involving chalcogen-rich ligands and Group 12 metals. My primary research goal was to increase our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of mercury toxicity; additionally, I explored the fundamental chemistry of both main group and transition metals, especially with regards to structure and bonding.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
2011 - 2011
Under the guidance of Professor Robert H. Grubbs, I studied the synthesis and photophysical properties of donor-bridge-acceptor systems as part of a collaboration with the Doheny Eye Institute at the University of Southern Californa. The ultimate goal of this collaboration is to develop new treatments to assist people suffering from visual impairments.
Graduate Research Assistant
2006 - 2011
Under the guidance of Professor Harry B. Gray, I studied the synthesis, structures, photophysical properties, and reactivity of Group 9 metallocorroles. Corroles are relatively new ligands that have potential applications in energy conversion, catalysis, and medicine. During my graduate studies, I synthesized the first well-characterized third-row metallocorroles; these were also the first examples of corroles displaying measurable phosphorescence at room temperature. My work with Professor Gray led to the publication of multiple papers and patents on the iridium corroles we invented.
Undergraduate Research Assistant
2004 - 2006
Under the guidance of Professor David I. Schuster, I studied the synthesis and photophysical properties of novel porphyrin-fullerene dyads, with the goal of preparing new systems with very long-lived charge-transfer states.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
2006 - 2011
Bachelor of Science (BS)
2002 - 2006