I am a driven polymer chemist currently leading a group within Applied Research at Behr Paint Company focusing on incorporating new technologies into architectural coatings and the digitalization of R&D workflows through the aid of machine learning and other digital tools. In my previous position at Ryvec I was responsible for all lab activities including the testing of materials, development of new testing methods, completion of projects and providing assistance to Production in regards to material issues. I successfully formulated and launched several new polyurethane adhesives as well as custom pigment dispersions for various customer applications including polyurethane foams and casted parts.I earned my Master's in Polymer and Coatings Science at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where I researched the rheological behavior of HEUR associative thickeners in mixtures with various acrylic latexes and how surfactants disrupt these interactions. I worked on my thesis at Behr Paint Company focusing on the application of machine learning and genetic algorithms in Python to model and predict performance properties of acrylic latexes. I successfully developed several models which were able to predict an acrylic latex's performance properties based on its formulation and also provide a formulation for a latex to meet specified performance criteria.I have several years of R&D experience in the coatings industry which focused mainly on waterborne architectural coatings but also included powder coatings for industrial applications. In the architectural space, I worked mainly on siloxane chemistry and the syntheses of novel polysiloxanes as well as the functionalization of nanoparticles for various coatings applications. For the powder coatings, I worked to develop new powder coatings with enhanced performance as well as color matching existing formulations. I also have analytic experience which I gained at James Hardie Building Products where I ran routine test methods to aid R&D as well as Manufacturing in trouble shooting and root cause analysis. Major test methods included running ICP, SEM, LECO, XRF and QXRD to determine materials' phase and atomic compositions.