The Science Mill’s founders, directors, managers and advisers bring a high level of expertise and enterprise to this endeavor along with a strong belief that a scientific and technology-literate population is essential to our country’s economy and critical to resolving serious issues we face in the coming years.

LEADERSHIP

TEAM

BOARD MEMBERS

FOUNDERS

Bonnie Baskin, Ph.D.
Founder and Chair of the Board, Bonita Baskin is a career scientist and business entrepreneur who founded and served as CEO for two successful life sciences companies - ViroMed Laboratories, Inc. and AppTec Laboratory Services, Inc. - which she led to successful acquisitions. Among her current and past board memberships are the Minneapolis YMCA, General Board, the Minnesota Biotechnology Association where she served as President, the University of Minnesota Office of Technology Commercialization Advisor Board, and technical consultant for Affinity Ventures IV.

She has been featured in two books, How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America and Bootstrap to Billions: Proven Rules from Entrepreneurs who built great companies from scratch. Her many honors and recognitions include the “Entrepreneur of the Year/Minnesota and Dakotas” award and is an inductee of the University of Minnesota YMCA Hall of Fame. She has a home in Johnson City.

Robert P. Elde, Ph.D. 
Science Director of the Board, and former Dean of the University of Minnesota’s College of Biological Sciences.  Retired in July 2014 he was also the J. B. Johnston Land Grant Professor of Neuroscience.  During his tenure as dean, the UM undergraduate programs in biology rose to become among the best in the nation.  His numerous leadership roles in the scientific community include serving as founding chair of UMN’s Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment; founding University Enterprise Laboratories, a non-profit bioscience incubator; and serving as the Treasurer and Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Science Museum of Minnesota. Over his career, he was an author or co-author of more than 240 scientific publications in cellular and molecular neuroscience research.