Experience

BlueDot Photonics

• United States
• Chemical Manufacturing
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Co-Founder and CTO

  • Feb 2019 - 4 years 11 months

  Greater Seattle Area • Defined the company’s technology vision. Engaged with customers & external partners to develop product specifications for BlueDot’s core silicon-perovskite optical tandem (SPOT) solar technology. Leveraged internally built techno-economic and carbon abatement models to guide our go-to-market strategy and product R&D roadmap. Also developed products for the medical imaging, solid state lighting, and anti-counterfeit/brand protection industries. • Raised $1.5M in equity financing and… Show more • Defined the company’s technology vision. Engaged with customers & external partners to develop product specifications for BlueDot’s core silicon-perovskite optical tandem (SPOT) solar technology. Leveraged internally built techno-economic and carbon abatement models to guide our go-to-market strategy and product R&D roadmap. Also developed products for the medical imaging, solid state lighting, and anti-counterfeit/brand protection industries. • Raised $1.5M in equity financing and $1.5M in non-dilutive funding. Facilitated due diligence with venture capital fund managers and federal agency program managers. Served as principal investigator and project manager on six contracts/grants from the US Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), the US National Science Foundation (NSF), Shell GameChanger Powered by NREL, etc. • Reported key business decisions and product R&D results to non-technical stakeholders (e.g., investors, federal agency program managers, and advisors). Publicly represented BlueDot Photonics in the media, at events, and with partners. • Built and managed BlueDot’s R&D team. Collaborated with cross-functional teams of scientists, engineers, and executives in academia, national labs, and global energy & materials companies to support product R&D. • Drove fast, iterative prototyping for internal vacuum-coating manufacturing tools and optoelectronic devices. Leveraged machine learning methods to identify key manufacturing process variables for enhanced product performance & reliability. • Designed and directed an R&D program to improve the performance and stability of BlueDot's core products: semiconductor optical coatings and microcrystalline powder phosphors. Carried out R&D in a cleanroom laboratory environment including materials fabrication (thin film coating and power processing) and characterization (SEM-EDS, FTIR, TGA/DSC, rheometry, spectroscopy, optical microscopy, XRD, etc.). Show less



University of Washington

• United States
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• CoMotion Commercialization Fellow

  • Oct 2019 - Aug 2021

  Greater Seattle Area • Developed a technology commercialization plan for silicon-perovskite optical tandem (SPOT) solar technology. Carried out market research, performed risk analysis, and conducted >100 customer/product discovery interviews through the National Science Foundation I-Corps National Program (won “Spirit of I-Corps” award) to form a business model & value proposition for the technology. • Fabricated and characterized prototype silicon-perovskite optical tandem (SPOT) solar modules. •… Show more • Developed a technology commercialization plan for silicon-perovskite optical tandem (SPOT) solar technology. Carried out market research, performed risk analysis, and conducted >100 customer/product discovery interviews through the National Science Foundation I-Corps National Program (won “Spirit of I-Corps” award) to form a business model & value proposition for the technology. • Fabricated and characterized prototype silicon-perovskite optical tandem (SPOT) solar modules. • Designed, built, and commissioned a high-vacuum thin-film perovskite semiconductor manufacturing system based on Continuous Flash Sublimation. • Co-founded BlueDot Photonics, a spinoff company of the University of Washington, and worked with founding team to sub-license key patents for BlueDot's IP portfolio.

• Washington Research Foundation Innovation Fellow in Clean Energy

  • Oct 2017 - Sep 2019

  Seattle, WA • Designed and executed an R&D program studying the optical properties of organic/inorganic “hybrid” perovskite semiconductors. Trained and mentored a team of graduate and undergraduate students in the Gamelin Lab at the University of Washington (UW) Dept. of Chemistry, UW Clean Energy Institute (CEI), and UW Molecular Engineering Materials Center (MEM-C). • Invented and patented a silicon-perovskite optical tandem (SPOT) solar module design that integrates a quantum-cutting perovskite… Show more • Designed and executed an R&D program studying the optical properties of organic/inorganic “hybrid” perovskite semiconductors. Trained and mentored a team of graduate and undergraduate students in the Gamelin Lab at the University of Washington (UW) Dept. of Chemistry, UW Clean Energy Institute (CEI), and UW Molecular Engineering Materials Center (MEM-C). • Invented and patented a silicon-perovskite optical tandem (SPOT) solar module design that integrates a quantum-cutting perovskite semiconductor as a spectral downconversion layer (absorbs UV/Blue light and emits near-infrared (NIR) light in a 2-for-1 process). • Invented and patented a thin film manufacturing process for perovskite semiconductors called Continuous Flash Sublimation (CFS). • Secured ~$1M for applied R&D and technology commercialization support from the US Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), Washington Research Foundation (WRF), M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, UW CoMotion, UW Clean Energy Institute, and Momental Foundation. • Authored ten peer-reviewed scientific publications and presented R&D results as an invited speaker at international conferences such as the Gordon Research Conferences (GRC) and SPIE Optics + Photonics.


Mistletoe Foundation
• Mistletoe Research Fellow

  • Aug 2018 - Jul 2019


National Renewable Energy Laboratory

• United States
• Research Services
• 700 & Above Employee

• Postdoctoral Researcher

  • May 2017 - Sep 2017

  Golden, Colorado • Investigated physicochemical and optical properties of CuIn(SxSe1-x)2 nanocrystals for commercial partners through the US DOE Small Business Vouchers Program

• Graduate Research Assistant

  • May 2013 - May 2017

  Golden, CO Research Advisors: Dr. Matthew Beard (NREL) & Dr. Arthur Nozik (CU Boulder) Thesis: Manipulation of Colloidal Semiconductor Nanocrystal Optical and Electronic Properties via Postsynthetic Chemical Modification • Investigated the optical and electronic properties of solution processable semiconductor nanocrystals (e.g. quantum dots) for renewable energy applications. • Synthesized II-VI and IV-VI semiconductor nanocrystals using standard air-free techniques (Schlenk line and… Show more Research Advisors: Dr. Matthew Beard (NREL) & Dr. Arthur Nozik (CU Boulder) Thesis: Manipulation of Colloidal Semiconductor Nanocrystal Optical and Electronic Properties via Postsynthetic Chemical Modification • Investigated the optical and electronic properties of solution processable semiconductor nanocrystals (e.g. quantum dots) for renewable energy applications. • Synthesized II-VI and IV-VI semiconductor nanocrystals using standard air-free techniques (Schlenk line and glovebox). • Performed post-synthetic modification of semiconductor nanocrystals including ligand exchange, electronic impurity doping, oriented attachment, cation exchange, and size-distribution narrowing. • Optimized nanocrystal thin film deposition techniques including dip-coating, spin coating, and dropcasting. • Characterized materials using techniques such as UV-Vis-NIR absorption, FT-IR, NMR, PL (QY), time-resolved PL, TEM, XRD, HPLC/GPC, ICP, cyclic voltammetry, and profilometry. • Fabricated and tested nanocrystal field effect transistors (FETs), solar cells, and (photo)electrodes. • Fabricated samples for XRF, AFM/STM/SKPM, XPS/UPS analysis. • Constructed and maintained a home-built broadband transient absorption (pump-probe ultrafast laser) spectrometer (optics and LabVIEW software) for the analysis of ps-ns charge carrier dynamics in semiconductor nanocrystal material systems - primarily studied Multiple Exciton Generation (MEG) for high efficiency solar energy capture and conversion.



University of Colorado Boulder

• United States
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Graduate Teaching Assistant

  • Aug 2012 - May 2013

  Boulder, CO • Led General Chemistry lab and recitation sections for first-year engineering students



Caltech

• United States
• IT Services and IT Consulting
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Visiting Student Researcher

  • May 2012 - Aug 2012

  Beckman Institute - Pasadena, CA Research Advisors: William Goddard III & Andres Jaramillo-Botero • Optimized coarse-grained chemical models of methacrylate polymers for computational analysis • Performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations on these models using the LAMMPS MD Simulator



Butler University

• United States
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Undergraduate Teaching Assistant

  • Aug 2011 - May 2012

  Indianapolis, Indiana Professor: Dr. Paul Morgan • Assisted with sophomore level organic chemistry lab sections

• Undergraduate Student Researcher

  • Dec 2008 - May 2012

  Indianapolis, Indiana Research Advisor: Dr. Todd Hopkins Thesis: Chiral Recognition in Amino Acid and Peptide Based Chiral Ionic Liquids • Synthesized di- and tri-peptides using literature techniques. • Synthesized and characterized chiral ionic liquids from amino acid and peptide derivatives. • Synthesized and characterized lanthanide complexes to serve as chiral luminescent probes. • Performed circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) spectroscopy on chiral lanthanide complexes… Show more Research Advisor: Dr. Todd Hopkins Thesis: Chiral Recognition in Amino Acid and Peptide Based Chiral Ionic Liquids • Synthesized di- and tri-peptides using literature techniques. • Synthesized and characterized chiral ionic liquids from amino acid and peptide derivatives. • Synthesized and characterized lanthanide complexes to serve as chiral luminescent probes. • Performed circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) spectroscopy on chiral lanthanide complexes solvated by chiral ionic liquids.

• High Ropes Challenge Course Facilitator

  • Aug 2008 - May 2012

  Indianapolis, Indiana