Dr. Mary Caruso Dailey

Meet Dr. Mary Caruso Dailey. From collision repair body shops to cellphones to vehicles, the science of Dr. Mary Caruso Dailey can be experienced, although you may not know it. As a Senior Product Development Specialist for the Automotive Aftermarket Division at 3M, Dr. Caruso Dailey is currently working on RepairStack™ Performance Solutions — a combined hardware and software inventory management platform—that was designed to help optimize and automate day-to-day body shop processes. Previously, she was in the Industrial Adhesives and Tapes Division where she led a team that commercialized 4 new liquid adhesives for electronic device applications, and developed a new film material called Crystal Silk, a durable film composite embedded with tiny glass beads that create a smooth tactile experience and easy-cleaning surface for a variety of touchpad-powered products. Before that, she worked in the Industrial Business Group on epoxy-based structural adhesives that have been brought to life in automotive, aerospace, and industrial applications.

Dr. Caruso Dailey has a passion for positively influencing our next generation of scientists. She is the current Co-Lead for the R&D Intern Program, and a past Chair of 3M’s Technical Women’s Leadership Forum, working to accelerate the inclusion and advancement of technical women globally to reflect our customers and markets and grow our business. She is actively involved in a number of mentoring opportunities with high school and college students, and has been a Young Scientist Challenge Judge for 4 years and Mentor for 6 years. Mary has also served as a science fair judge at both the state and regional levels, volunteered at the Regional Science Bowls, and inspired high-school students through speaking engagements as part of the 3M’s Technical Teams Encouraging Career Horizons (TECH) program. She has also been featured in a 3M’s Science at Home video series, which are experiments that can be done with common household materials with a target audience of school-age children. She is also the Chair-Elect and Communications Lead for 3M’s Families and Caregivers Special Interest group.

Dr. Caruso Dailey earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2010 and her B.S. in Chemistry from Elon University in 2006.