Advisory Board

Little Sparrows Technologies is proud to work with an Advisory Board whose interests and expertise transcend ordinary boundaries.

Charles F. McMillan, PhD has more than 35 years of scientific and leadership experience. He is a frequent speaker on the vital role of national laboratories for the nation, and the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in cultivating the talent necessary to sustaining that role in the future. His interests are global as well as domestic, demonstrated by extensive travel and volunteer work for projects in sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. McMillan served as Director of Los Alamos National Laboratory and President of Los Alamos National Security, LLC from June 2011 to December 2017, overseeing an annual operating budget of approximately $2.5 billion, roughly 1100 employees and a nearly 40 square-mile site featuring some of the most specialized scientific equipment and supporting infrastructure in the world. The Laboratory is a principal contributor to the US Department of Energy to maintain the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile. 

Dr. McMillan guided Los Alamos through continuing high levels of mission execution, and under his leadership the Laboratory continued to innovate new techniques, including novel systems that provide exponential improvements in data-gathering. He holds a doctorate in physics from MIT and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Washington Adventist Academy.

Jim Miller, JD is counsel to numerous environmental and progressive groups, Director of the MA Department of Environmental Protection, Director of the MA Environmental Crimes Strike Force and has been an investigative TV reporter. He has served as a Senior Advisor to USAID, participated in founding Private Capital Group-Africa (PCGA) to encourage innovative partnerships between private capital and local enterprise in sub-Saharan Africa. He has also served as both a Special Advisor to the MassChallenge CEO and Chief Global Mentor. He is currently an Executive-in-Residence to Partners Healthcare Office of Innovation.

Mr. Miller received his undergraduate degree from Middlebury College and law degree from Boston University. He is a serial entrepreneur, starting his first enterprise as a college student. He has co-founded two national retail chains (Bertucci’s  and FiRE+iCE Restaurants) and subsequently two medical device enterprises, all of which resulted in successful exits including 3 IPOs.

Jack Szostak, PhD is biochemist who is broadly interested in details of science and technology and the ways in which they can enhance human well-being. During the 1980s Dr. Szostak carried out research on the genetics and biochemistry of DNA recombination, which led to the double-strand-break repair model for meiotic recombination. At the same time Dr. Szostak made fundamental contributions to our understanding of telomere structure and function, and the role of telomere maintenance in preventing cellular senescence.  For this work Dr. Szostak shared, with Drs. Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider, the 2006 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award and the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

In the 1990s Dr. Szostak developed in vitro selection as a tool for the isolation of functional RNA, DNA and protein molecules from large pools of random sequences.  His laboratory used in vitro selection and directed evolution to isolate and characterize numerous nucleic acid sequences with specific ligand binding and catalytic properties. From 2000 until the present Dr. Szostak’s research interests have focused on the laboratory synthesis of self-replicating systems and the origin of life.

He received his B.Sc. from McGill University in Montreal in 1972, and his Ph.D. from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, in 1977.  Dr. Szostak is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, and the Alex Rich Distinguished Investigator in the Dept. of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Muhammad Hamid Zaman, PhD is Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor of Biomedical Engineering and International Health at Boston University. Prof. Zaman’s research is focused on developing robust technologies and systems level solutions to improve the quality of medicines, particularly as they are related to mortality and morbidity associated with anti-microbial resistance. Scientific American has named technologies from the Zaman lab among the top 10 that will change the world.  Professor Zaman is also part of the advisory committee for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal implementation in his native Pakistan, working with both public and the private sectors.

His latest book, Bitter Pills (Oxford University Press, 2018), looks at the global challenge of substandard and counterfeit drugs and the need for integrated solutions, ranging from innovation and technology to public health and regulation, to address the global crisis in the prevalence of substandard drugs and how they relate to global anti-microbial resistance challenges. His book also looks at the role of the private sector in developing innovation and creating an equitable platform for innovation development.

In addition, his newspaper columns have appeared in newspapers around the world, including the New York Times, Houston Chronicle and US News and World Report. He is a regular contributor on issues of drug quality and global health for the Project Syndicate (his columns have appeared in newspapers in more than 30 countries in six different languages), Huffington Post and writes a weekly column on innovation in health and education for leading Pakistan daily, Express Tribune which is part of the International New York Times group.