About Me

I am a family man, an effective altruist, and a nerd searching for my ikigai (or Zuzunaga purpose, to be more precise). My career, experiences, passions, and motivations all reflect these core values.

To that end, I am currently a senior research scientist in Toyota Research Institute’s Energy & Materials division. Our vision is to mitigate the effects of climate change by advancing sustainable energy technologies. We do this by accelerating materials discovery for mobility applications. Specifically: I am creating closed-loop systems for automating discovery of improved materials and conditions for fuel cells, batteries, and other applications.

I also spent time at Schrodinger as a software developer. While there, I developed and maintained software for scientists use to perform, manage, and analyze computer simulations of materials. We used these simulations to help scientists discover and optimize new materials for several applications.

Between 2016 and 2021, I obtained my PhD in Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University under the advisement of Zack Ulissi. My PhD research began with the objective of mitigating climate change by looking for catalysts to produce solar fuels and chemicals. It eventually grew into designing and using strategies for automated materials/catalyst discovery. These strategies involved the melding of theoretical chemistry, high performance computing, machine learning, statistics, and software engineering. The work has since spun out into several projects, including The Open Catalyst Project—a collaboration between Facebook’s AI Research group and the Ulissi Group. You can also check out an interview I did on This Week in Machine Learning and AI during my 2nd year.

Between 2011 and 2016, I worked at W.L. Gore & Associates for five years as a process engineer. I worked in their Core Technology division helping create implantable medical devices, such as bioresorbable hernia patches or stent-grafts. I did this by leading and executing a variety of projects that spanned from new product development, process validation, equipment design, to processing research. These projects gave me first-hand experience with applied statistics, materials science, biomedical engineering, regulated quality systems, and project management.

Before working, I graduated from the University of Delaware in 2011 under the research advisement of Babatunde Ogunnaike. Although my coursework focused on sustainable energy technologies, my research focused on biopharmaceutical applications. Specifically, I assessed the feasibility of antibody quality control by performing sensitivity analyses on microkinetic models of glycosylation. I also received a minor in philosophy from the University of Delaware with a special interest in the teachings of Alan Fox.

Outside of my day job, I enjoy being with family, playing with my nieces, cooking/eating, shooting pool, playing ultimate frisbee, practicing yoga, and rock climbing.

Updated on 11 January 2023