Cynthia Hipwell

Cynthia Hipwell has been working in the area of technology development based upon nanoscale phenomena for over 30 years. She received her B.S.M.E. from Rice University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Upon graduation, she went to work at Seagate Technology’s Recording Head Division in Bloomington, MN. During her nearly two decades at Seagate, she held multiple individual contributor and leadership roles including Executive Director of Advanced Mechanical Technology and Executive Director of Advanced Transducer (Electrical) Development, leading the electrical feasibility demonstration of heads for the radical new recording technology Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR). In these various roles, she established new business processes and an organizational culture that focused on developing innovative solutions from root cause understanding. She was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering for “leadership in the deve