Growing up I always was interested in how things worked. As a little kid, I was fascinated by anything with a motor or mechanism. As I grew older, I started taking things apart, putting them back together, and wanting to build new things. I would spend most of my free time woodworking, tinkering around with my homebuilt CNC, or silly projects like a giant pumpkin catapult. After high school, I knew engineering was the path for me and I never looked back. I studied at UNL where I stayed involved with clubs, internships at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and KPE, and worked in the Advanced Surgical Technologies research lab making tiny surgical robots. I graduated from UNL in 2017 with a degree in mechanical engineering and was excited to put my skills to work in the industry. I started at Elemental Scientific because I loved the company’s focus on automation, the work culture, and the rapid pace of development. I’ve worked on various products in the semiconductor and laboratory sectors developing new automation solutions. My primary focus over the last several years has been on the Radian VPD-ICPMS. As the product’s lead engineer, I help drive development to provide new, custom solutions for our customers. I’ve been working on this product since its very start and have had the unique opportunity to see it grow into the product that it is today with systems and customers all over the world. We have several issued patents and more pending but we’re just getting started. We’re constantly pushing the boundaries of what can be done and I am excited to see what is to come in the future.