Michael Harper Email & Phone Number

Annandale, Nj

Energy Systems Quantitative Researcher- Defined data model and developed pipeline for storing chemical properties in relational database.- Reduced 80% of planned experiments by developing predictive model for chemical properties.- Innovative work resulted in 1 provisional patent application and 4 journal publications.Key skills: Data augmentation; Supervised machine learning; Building data processing pipelines in python; Optimization in AIMMS; Data analytics and visualization in Tableau; Version control using gitData Engineer / Team Lead- Saved Gulf Coast business partner $15M/year by developing pipeline to process and clean datasets.- Enabled near real-time monitoring of process by developing key performance indicator dashboards.- Mentored 4 junior data scientists.- Recognized with Department’s 2018 “Innovator of the Year” award.Key skills: Working in agile environment; Working remotely; Mentoring; Building data processing pipelines in SQL and python; Data analytics and visualization in Tableau; Version control using gitProgram Lead- Defined and executed strategy for new program to measure and model chemical mixture properties.- Led hiring committee for 4 positions; mentored 8 senior researchers.- Supervised work of 3 external partners (two universities, one software company).- Innovative work resulted in 1 provisional patent application and 10 journal publications.Key skills: Building consensus; Mentoring; IP strategy; Empowering team members to take ownershipMentoring Advocates- Co-designed web-based database of mentors to facilitate proteges' (of all experience levels) ability to find potential mentors.- Led several "speed mentoring" events, both in person and virtually, to broaden proteges' networks and create ice breaking event.Global Organization for the Advancement of Latinos- Co-organized site-wide I&D Day.- Installed OS on donated laptops for Hunterdon County residents in need.- Science fair judge for Hudson County STEM showcase.

Annandale, Nj

- Individual Contributor: Developed model of composition and compositional property models for heavy petroleum oil, enabling research programs that sought ~$300M savings. Project required merging ~6,000 historical data records with ~200,000 new data records self-consistently. Compositional property models were developed to utilize the ~206,000 data records as inputs for a predictive model. Computing infrastructure necessitated a data reconciliation protocol be developed to reduce the ~200,000 new data records to ~15,000 while maintaining the full model’s predictive capability.- Individual Contributor: Developed heavy petroleum oil thermal conversion model that utilized the ~21,000 reduced data records as input and predicted the change in each data record’s value for a set of reaction conditions (e.g. temperature, pressure, and time). Estimated model parameters utilizing historical datasets; identified parameters that were invariant to available datasets and designed / supervised new experiments to address this gap. Tuned model accurately predicted lab experimental results.- New Hire Professional Development Program: As site-wide Chair, led multiple initiatives to assist ~150 site-wide new hires with assimilating into the Corporate environment, mentoring / networking, and outreach / community service (e.g. United Way Day of Action).

Annandale, Nj

- Individual Contributor: Developed and validated detailed first-principles pressure swing adsorption process model in gPROMS software. Process model accurately predicted pressure, temperature, and species breakthrough curves as a function of feed pressure, volumetric flow rate, and composition for multi-component system for flow rates spanning three orders of magnitude. Insight from process model influenced project leadership to change adsorbent layer thickness significantly from design basis. Process model accuracy met requirements for project to proceed with commercial demonstration unit design.- Individual Contributor: Developed detailed first-principles temperature swing adsorption process models in gPROMS. Identified key performance metrics for evaluating different adsorbent bed architectures. Influenced project management team to pursue development of one bed architecture and halt further research on other two architectures under consideration.- New Hire Professional Development Program: As department-wide Mentoring Chair, initiated a “Speed Mentoring” event for ~25 department new hires to address gap identified in new hire evaluation of onboarding process.

- Increased client’s return on investment by developing duration model for NBA line movements.- Applied multivariate statistical analysis for 5 seasons’ worth of Don Best irregularly spaced time series data to forecast ‘time to next event’ for totals and against the spread line movements.- Improved model’s accuracy by identifying and correcting data engineering error in data extracted from external database.- Subject matter expertise in NCAA enabled rapid identification of missing datasets.Key skills: Predictive modeling using Keras library; Building data processing pipelines with MongoDB

Cambridge, Ma

- Contributed to the development and release of a Java-based chemistry software package, Reaction Mechanism Generator (RMG): Reduced the runtime by a factor of 2; extended the chemistry set (from carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen) to include silicon and sulfur; improved kinetic database’s rate coefficient estimates for molecules with alcohol functional groups.- Labeled 7,000 entries of an online thermochemical database with unique species identifiers, to facilitate RMG’s mining of the database for thermochemistry and kinetics parameters- Constructed code to solve a 2-D flame, and employed the solver to validate a reaction mechanism for three hexadiene isomers: S. Sharma, M.R. Harper, W.H. Green; Combustion and Flame 157 (7) 1331-1345 DOI: 10.1016/j.combustflame.2010.02.012- Built and validated a pressure-dependent reaction mechanism for the pyrolysis and combustion of 1-butanol against eight unique datasets: M.R. Harper, K.M. Van Geem. S.P. Pyl, G.B. Marin, W.H. Green; Combust. Flame 158 (1) 16-41 DOI: 10.1016/j.combustflame.2010.06.002- Extended the validated 1-butanol pyrolysis and oxidation model to include 2- and tert-butanol, allowing comparisons between primary, secondary, and tertiary alcohols: K.M. Van Geem, S.P. Pyl, G.B. Marin, M.R. Harper, W.H. Green; Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 49 (21) 10399-10420 DOI: 10.1021/ie1005349

Cambridge, Ma

- Designed MATLAB-based problem sets involving linear algebra, optimization, differential equations, and fitting models to data

Plymouth, Minnesota

- Project Leader: Mapped the response surface for a cereal production unit operation, and identified operating parameters that resulted in a two-fold expansion in the product range- Quantified sugar crystallization kinetics at industrial conditions

Basel Area, Switzerland

- Project Leader: Made recommendations on equipment purchases and process scheduling to increase solid tablet production efficiency- Modeled the scheduling of a pharmaceutical bioproduction plant and performed throughput analysis and debottlenecking

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Chemical Engineering

Master Of Science - Ms, Chemical Engineering Practice

Recipient of the William C. Rousseau Award in Leadership and Ethics in Chemical Engineering Practice

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Chemical Engineering, Cumma Sum Laude

Graduated Summa Cum Laude