Meet Our Executive Board

Safiyah Muhammad is currently a Senior Research Specialist in Dow Performance Silicones’ Resins, Coatings, and Adhesives Product Development group. In this role, Safiyah is responsible for the development and application of new silicone resins.

Safiyah joined Dow in 2021 after receiving a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). During her tenure at UIUC, she helped to re-establish the graduate and undergraduate NOBCChE chapter and co-lead recruitment efforts of the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering departments at the National NOBCChE Conference and other conferences for underrepresented groups in STEM.

While at Dow, Safiyah also serves on the Membership committee for Dow's Global African Affinity Network as well as the Social and Networking co-chair for the Young Researcher Community (YRC). In her free time, Safiyah loves to be active and outside, frequently weightlifting, playing volleyball, camping, and indoor rock climbing/bouldering as well as engaging in many other activities.

Angelar Muthike is a Senior Research Specialist at The Dow Chemical Company. Her current research focuses on developing, enhancing or using existing optical laser spectroscopy methods for industrial material characterization. Angelar received her B.Sc. in Chemistry from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2017 and her Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 2022. In addition to her NOBCChE involvement, Angelar is actively involved in the Midland Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS) where she’s a member of the DE&I steering committee and serves as one of the section directors, is the 2023 co-chair of the Dow Discussion Group on Interfacial Science (DDGIS) and is a member of the Precious Sisters Charity Trust (a UK-Kenyan Charity) board of trustees.

She enjoys working out, playing volleyball, hanging out with friends, travelling, mentoring, and just recently started practicing Brazilian Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.

After graduating from the University of Central Florida with a degree in Industrial Engineering, Leah made the long trek to Midland Michigan to work in Railcar Logistics. It was in Midland that Leah was introduced and recruited into NOBCChE, where she has been a board member since 2014. What Leah enjoys most about NOBCChE is the dedication to engaging and empowering youth in our community. In her spare time Leah enjoys baking wedding cakes, and teaching dance classes with her husband Sam.

Edward K. Nyutu is a Research Scientist in Corporate R&D - Engineering and Process Sciences organization at Dow Inc. In this role Edward is responsible for the early process development for innovative chemistries, materials and processes to support various applications and businesses. 

     Edward joined Dow in 2011 and worked on various R&D projects within Dow Performance Silicones (DPS) business prior to his current role. This included, development of innovative structural fire-rated glass solutions, castable silicon-metal composites for structural and electronic applications, development of novel catalysts for petrochemical processing and automotive emission control and, moldable optical silicone product development. Edward, extensively interfaced with the business Process R&D and M&E organizations, to develop knowledge and capabilities to sustain the growth of the moldable silicones secondary optics segment through improved processing of key siloxane intermediates to meet current and emerging customer's needs. Before joining Dow, Edward was a senior process development engineer at Intel Corporation. 

     Edward received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Connecticut in 2008 and his B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of Nairobi, Kenya.