Founder & CTO at Tachyus, backed by Founders Fund. Sr Research Scientist (Battery Technology) at Tesla. Dir of Engineering at Integrated Plasmonics (Medial Device). Ph.D in Experimental Particle Physics from Stanford.
Over a decade managing R&D organizations in a variety of fields, both hardware and software. Roles have included CTO at Tachyus (team size of 16), Director of Engineering at Integrated Plasmonics (team size of 13), Senior Research Scientist at Tesla Motors (team size of 2), and playing several team lead roles in my Ph.D research group at Stanford University. Expertise in hiring, strategic planning, motivation, career development, technical guidance, technical sales and communication. I've overseen the development of 23 patents over the course of my career.
My co-founder and I raised $25M+ for Tachyus in three rounds led by Founders Fund for our Seed and Series A. I was instrumental as the technical expert and inventor of our core technology in product vision and customer acquisition.
I was a member of the Battery Safety and Technology Team at Tesla Motors: *Led the testing and development of key cell and pack safety features which enabled cost efficiency and energy density of the 85kWh Model S battery pack, reporting status directly to CEO Elon Musk. *Worked with the world’s leading cell suppliers to develop novel cell mechanical and electro-chemical designs for Tesla’s unique energy and safety requirements. *Initial member of Telsa Gigafactory battery team, developed first prototype materials and parts. *Designed methods and executed cell, module, and pack level safety experiments with a focus on single cell thermal failures and module/pack level electrical failures. *Proposed and led prototyping of several design changes for Model S, RAV4, and other battery projects, including in-house designs and prototypes of several key commercial components. *12 patent applications filed
I've spent over 15 years employing the latest in AI and machine learning in tech. Applications have included:
**Analysis of complex and varied experimental data sets contributing to design of the world's most sensitive neutrino detector during my Physics Ph.D tenure at Stanford. **Analysis of complex and varied experimental data sets leading to optimization of Model S battery safety system and cell design at Tesla Motors **Algorithm design for a novel plasmonic blood analysis sensor at biotech startup Integrated Plasmonics **Discovery, design, and monetization of of oil fields ld stimulation optimization algorithms as technical co-founder and CTO at Tachyus **Development of a deep recurrent neural network to optimize trading strategies in financial markets
I can assist in determining the best algorithmic approach for a problem, implementation of that approach, and diagnosing issues in algorithm accuracy and speed.
I was co-founder at Tachyus, a Founders Fund backed startup specializing in creating software to optimize conventional upstream production:
*Founded the research organization (spanning both hardware and algorithms). Directly responsible for vision, recruiting, hiring, and managing. *Discovered an enormous oil field stimulation optimization opportunity, shaping the technological vision of the company and product. Wrote the first algorithm to take advantage of this opportunity, leading to our first dozen customers, generating tens of millions in value for them and millions in revenue to Tachyus. *Invented Data Physics, our proprietary synthesis of traditional PDE and physics based solvers with advanced data science techniques, leading the expansion of our initial simulation and optimization algorithms and increasing our TAM to $100B+. *Invented and led prototyping of novel sensor hardware. *My team produced 9 hardware and software patents, 4 of which list me as an inventor. *As technical co-founder and board member, was critical to raising $25M in two rounds led by Founders Fund, acquiring our initial customer base, developing the culture of our company, and expanding our team to over 35.
