Thursday, May 23rd, 2019

2:00 PM - 2:45 PM - Herscher Hall, Guerin B

Back to the Future - Using Landrace Genetics and Biomimicry to Produce Safe Medicine

This panel will engage the audience in a scientific discussion of why landraces matter to produce optimal medicine, why they are so hard to grow, and the science of biomimicry that makes commercial-scale cultivation possible. Panelists will include prominent medical experts, living soil and sunlight scientists, and experienced cultivators currently working with landrace genetics. Landraces are the most sought-after and medicinally-valuable chemovars in the world. They offer stable genetic foundations on which to build new medicinal chemovars. The sad reality is that landraces are under threat of extinction. These ancient plants are not viable in today’s commercial cultivation conditions. They are tied to their roots of home, expressing compounds based on the sunlight and terroir of where they evolved. Under artificial light and especially with synthetic inputs, landraces fail to thrive. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the average consumer, the exponentially growing cannabis market is flooded with cheap and dirty substitutes. The chemically grown, narrow range of genetics found on dispensary shelves leaves patients with an unpredictable and increasingly limited range of effective medicinal options. The future starts at Digital Hollywood with a discussion meant to educate and activate. This panel will be of particular interest to craft and high-end cultivators, medical professionals, and all those committed to contributing to a healthier world aligned with natur

Sundarajan Mutialu, Chief Technology Officer and Co-CEO, AZENTIVE

Brett Leonard, Award-Winning Filmmaker/Futurist

Michael Angelotti, Geneticist and Product Developer, Emerald Cup Products

Jeff Lowenfels, Lawyer and Award Winning Author, "Teaming With Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to The Soil Food Web"

Dr. Kat A. Donnelly, Founder and Co-CEO, AZENTIVE, Moderator

Dr. Kat A. Donnelly is Founder and Co-CEO of AZENTIVE, of AZENTIVE, a wellness and sustainability company supporting the profitable delivery of the purest, organic cannabis. She has over 25 years of experience in mechanical engineering, energy efficiency, and behavior science. Kat is a serial entrepreneur and sought-after speaker and consultant working at the intersection of emerging and sustainable technology and behavioral/social science. Kat holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Systems and two Masters of Science degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Brett Leonard is an award-winning Filmmaker/Futurist with over 25 years of Hollywood experience as a pioneer in both the development and use of new media technologies. He is widely recognized as a top thought-leader in Virtual Reality since introducing the concept and term to popular culture in his seminal hit film Lawnmower Man - Many pioneers and tech leaders of the emerging VR industry count Lawnmower Man as one of their key inspirations for creating the actual “reality” of this world-changing medium. Brett’s core philosophy, born out in his work: “To empower people to create and experience compelling story, character, and emotion in any medium, no matter what the technology being used to enable it."

Michael Angelotti is Geneticist and Product Developer for Emerald Cup Products. For the past nine years, Michael has been extensively researching and developing award winning, terpene and cannabinoid specific genetics that specialize in non-solvent extraction concentrates for Emerald Cup Genetics. Michael managed and facilitated The Emerald Cup contest from 2012 - 2015 and since has been featured in numerous magazines, television interviews and educational programs as an advocate for the preservation and breeding with landrace cannabis genetics from Central and East Asian countries.

Jeff Lowenfels is the most humorous and entertaining lecturer on the cannabis circuit. He is a reformed lawyer and author of Timber Press' award winning and best selling books, Teaming With Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to The Soil Food Web and Teaming With Nutrients: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to Optimizing Plant Nutrition and completing the trilogy, Teaming With Fungi, The Organic Grower’s Guide to Mycorrhizae. His next book, DIY Autoflowering Cannabis will be released by New Society Publishers in October.

Sundarajan Mutialu is the Chief Technology Officer and Co-CEO of AZENTIVE, a wellness and sustainability company supporting the profitable delivery of the purest, organic cannabis. AZENTIVE’s flagship plasma lighting technology, The Sun On-Demand™, produces true sunlight and empowers cultivation of sungrown quality organic cannabis in any controlled environment. Sundarajan specializes in advanced materials, plasma physics, materials processing, and surface modification. He has a long career in technology with past positions including, independent consultant, Aultimut International (President), Plasma Technik (VP), Airco Temescal Evaporated Products (General Sales Manager), Jet Avion (President’s Assistant), as well as past clients including Fortune 100 and 500 companies, branches of the armed forces, and numerous international firms. His track record of engineering, management, and new product development has yielded technologies that are now ubiquitous in a variety of industries. He is passionate about producing the highest quality cannabis to serve the most patients possible. AZENTIVE’s approach to achieving this is to honor the plant first, and then to apply biomimicry to wrap sustainable technology solutions into the cultivation of that plant.