Biography

I graduated in 2010 from Duke University with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. After receiving my degree, I was commissioned as an officer in the United States Navy, where I served on USS STERETT (DDG 104) for nearly two years as the Electrical and Auxiliary Systems Officer. I then worked as an engineer for Access Midstream, a natural gas midstream company, where I helped design pipelines and facilities for natural gas in the Utica shale in Ohio. Both my experience on a ship and time in the energy industry made me appreciate how important energy is, and inspired me to pursue ways to reduce energy requirements and usage. While at Duke, I did research on smart materials, which piqued my interest in their applications. I combined these two interests while pursuing my MPhil in Engineering, which focused on how materials can be used to improve energy efficiency and reduce both usage and costs.

After finishing my degree, I became employed as a test engineer at SpaceX. I deeply believe in SpaceX's mission of sending humans to live on Mars - my energy research at Cambridge make me increasingly concerned about the dire effects of global warming on our planet. We need to tackle the problems here, but also need to spread out as much as we can. I am currently living and working in Los Angeles, at SpaceX's headquarters. As a test engineer, I make sure that the hardware sent into space can survive launch conditions by physically testing it before it is installed on the rocket.