Education
Massachusetts Institute of Technology — Doctoral Study in Materials Science and Engineering
2024–present · Cambridge, Massachusetts
Advised by Prof. TJ Wallin. Research in polymers, polymer kinetics, and volumetric additive manufacturing, including multi-material processing.
Harvey Mudd College — B.S. in General Engineering
2017–2021 · Claremont, California
Certificate in Environmental Analysis · Concentration in Political Studies · GPA: 3.92
Coursework spanning chemical reactor engineering, thermodynamics, materials and structures, systems and controls, numerical methods, image processing, machine learning, and state estimation.
Professional experience
HGenium — Process Engineer, New Process Scale-Up
January–August 2024 · Monrovia, California
- Worked with Prof. Mark Davis of Caltech and a six-person research team to scale up a novel three-step thermochemical process for green hydrogen production through water splitting.
- Led development of technoeconomic process models to guide research priorities and support venture-capital and U.S. government grant fundraising.
- Managed Aspen Plus process flowsheets to estimate commercial energy efficiency and inform technoeconomic analysis.
Heliogen Research and Development — Research Engineer II, Solar Thermal Receivers and Reactors
2021–January 2024 · Pasadena, California
- Worked on a four-person research team developing and executing Heliogen’s technology roadmap.
- Led and contributed to proposal campaigns that secured more than five DOE SETO and SBIR research grants totaling over $15 million. Topics included additively manufactured high-temperature ceramics, solar fuels, solar thermal calcination, and ceramic-particle surface regeneration.
- Designed and built benchtop, laboratory, and pre-commercial testing instruments to advance solar thermal receiver concepts from TRL 2 to TRL 5, using SolidWorks, ANSYS, and NI tools.
- Used MATLAB, Simulink, Python, and TracePro for simulation, optical modeling, receiver design, and technoeconomic analysis.
Silicon carbide matrix solar thermal air receiver
2021–2024 · DOE project DE-EE0009804 · With General Electric
Led on-sun test engineering and optical simulation for an additively manufactured 1100°C silicon carbide air receiver. Developed a technoeconomic framework to guide system design and productization toward DOE targets.
Solar thermal calcination system
2022–2024 · DOE project DE-EE0010312
Produced the mechanical design of a 400 kW solar thermal receiver to directly calcine calcium carbonate to calcium oxide. Led simulation and technology down-selection for conceptual designs, and built a laboratory to validate particle-flow and heat-transfer models.
Research experience
Doctoral Research — MIT Materials Science and Engineering
2024–present · Advisor: Prof. TJ Wallin
Research at the intersection of polymer chemistry, reaction kinetics, printer design, and computational methods for volumetric 3D printing. Current interests include material processing, multiphysics modeling, and optimization.
Lewis Fellowship in Engineering Professional Practice
2019–2021 · HMC Molecular Diffusion Laboratory · Advisor: Prof. Nancy Lape
Researched polymeric membranes for gas separation through experimental synthesis and molecular dynamics simulation. Developed GROMACS simulations to estimate diffusivity and selectivity in the presence of silica nanoparticles using energy-minimized chain topology.
Henry E. and Gayle Riggs Fellowship in Engineering Management
2018–2019 · Harvey Mudd College, Ametek Ameron, and Mission Rubber · Advisor: Prof. Kash Gokli
Applied Lean and Toyota Production System principles to manufacturing lines producing pressure vessels and rubber couplings. Simulated, optimized, and implemented standard operating procedures for single-piece flow, with reported combined annual savings exceeding $500,000.
Recognition & service
- MathWorks Fellowship, MIT School of Engineering — 2026–2027.
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship — 2021; offered for chemical engineering and declined before joining Heliogen R&D.
- Johnson Excellence in Engineering Award, Harvey Mudd College.
- Departmental Honors in Engineering and in Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts, Harvey Mudd College.
- Vice President, Tau Beta Pi California Omega chapter; managed a volunteer tutoring organization for core engineering courses.
- At Harvey Mudd College: machine shop proctor, Homework Hotline tutor, and grader/tutor in engineering systems, image processing, and chemical and thermal processes.
Conference presentations
Solar Field Modelling to Inform the Development of High-Performance Receiver Systems
SolarPACES 2023 · Sydney, Australia
Ametek Ameron: Building on Lean Production System from the Ground Up
IISE International Conference 2021 · Remote
From Students to Consultants: Transforming Manufacturing Through People and Processes
IISE Western Conference 2020 · Los Angeles, California
B/E Line: A Lean Transformation
APICS Inland Empire Chapter 2019 · Claremont, California