Cynthia M. Friend, Ph.D, is president and CEO of The Kavli Foundation and T.W. Richard Professor of Chemistry Emerita at Harvard University. Before joining Kavli in January 2021, Dr. Friend was on the Harvard faculty starting in 1982 and later served in several leadership positions, including Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Director of The Rowland Institute at Harvard. She was an Associate Lab Director (2011-12) at SLAC National Accelerator Lab, a preeminent international facility for X-ray science at Stanford University. Friend’s research focused on nanoscience applied to energy sciences, sustainability, and environmental chemistry. She currently serves on the Bruker Instruments board, is Chair of the U.S. Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee, and is Chair-elect of the Science Philanthropy Alliance Board. Friend is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Chemical Society, and AAAS. She was a postdoctoral researcher in Chemical Engineering at Stanford, earned her Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley, and her B.S. in Chemistry from U.C. Davis. The Kavli Foundation supports basic research in astrophysics, nanoscience, neuroscience, and theoretical physics.