Heather Wilkens Email & Phone Number

San Diego, Ca

Promoting innovative solutions through test and analysis-driven design.

Greater San Diego Area

Responsible for defining, organizing, and leading projects to drive new business, including financial, technology, and schedule performance• Coordinated technical proposal preparation for significant Department of Energy (DOE)contracts (from $250k to $25M/year in scope) for the production of targets and components for national inertial confinement fusion (ICF) programs, collaborating across functional groups to drive efficiency and meet aggressive deadlines• Identified and courted new customers; managed projects to prototype new target requirements and proactively sought DOE funding to fast-track business relationships• Built partnerships and brought visibility to the company within the larger community; secured and managed numerous contracts by leveraging unique, in-house production capabilities and a personal network of strong industry relationships• Re-energized long-term research project by creating a world-class collaboration with the University of Wisconsin, Madison, to model and test game-changing engine efficiency technology; developed strategies to bring the technology to the small-diesel-engine market• Served as key liaison with other departments, successfully managing contentious situations, to expedite contract negotiations, non-disclosure agreements, and other business formalities• Developed and strengthened client/vendor relationships to discover previously unknowncollaboration opportunities, with cost savings of tens of thousands of dollars per year

Greater San Diego Area

Managed the Coatings Group consisting of eleven Ph.D. and bachelor-level scientists, technicians, and interns who supported a variety of experimental programs• Led technical team to innovate and produce what was once believed impossible: the world’s first long-lived, gold-encased depleted uranium cylinder for use on the National Ignition Facility (NIF); overcame significant experimental difficulties, met high-profile DOE milestones• Created milestones, organized and tracked project activities, and monitored adherence to masterplans and budget• Acted as primary customer contact on status and performance• Supervised sputter, evaporative, and electron beam coatings for a total of 12 devices; performedlab work when required, provided detailed scientific analysis to upper management and directlycollaborated with customers to meet stringent design specifications• Produced extensive hazardous work authorization plan for working with pyrophoric andradioactive materials; initiated close relationship with internal health physics department• Designed, built, and implemented relational FileMaker Pro database system for tracking the fabrication, characterization, and quality control of deliverable components• Executed numerous capital equipment acquisitions (total of ~$1.75M)• Oversaw the design, procurement, construction, and process development of 5 custom multi-source and multi-substrate sputter deposition systems (~$1.25M)• Co-chair of divisionsafetycommittee

Department Of Materials, Oxford, United Kingdom

As postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford, obtained extensive training for transmission electron microscopy (TEM), including coursework on basic and high resolution electron microscopy, image interpretation, and digital image processing, as well as formal training for scanning electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy• Self-funded from highly competitive National Science Foundation International Research Fellowship program grant• Correlated transport measurements completed during thesis work with nano-scale magnetic studies of the magnetization reversal mechanism in thin film exchange biased bilayers using Lorentz TEM (JEOL 4000SE) and high spatial resolution (JEOL 4000EX) structural studies • Learned a variety of TEM sample preparation methods including grinding and polishing techniques, precision ion polishing, and focused ion beam technology to create sub-micrometer scale cross sections • Utilized superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometer for characterization of magnetic properties of exchange biased samples• Active member of refurbishment committee for the Victorian-era building housing the group’s office space

As member of advanced development team at Seagate Technology while conducting Ph.D. thesis research, participated in the research and engineering of current-in-plane spinvalve, tunneling magnetoresistive and current-perpendicular-to-plane spinvalve read head devices• Made extensive measurements of transport properties of a large variety of technologically applicable magnetic thin films, including samples exhibiting anisotropic magnetoresistance, giant magnetoresistance and tunneling magnetoresistance phenomena, as a function of material properties• Characterized magnetic and structural properties of materials using vibrating sample and alternating gradient magnetometry, X-ray reflectivity and refraction, X-ray fluorescence, ellipsometry, and magnetic and atomic force microscopy• Carried out duties of full-time engineer, including providing written weekly reports to management and participating in daily meetings, with periodic oral presentations

Mba

San Francisco Campus

Phd, Physics