Nicholas Ingle Email & Phone Number

Kensington, Ca, Us

Alameda, California, Us

Alameda, California, Us

Alameda, California, Us

The single biggest near-term breakthrough for advanced Li-ion batteries will be silicon anodes. At Sila Nanotechnologies, I have helped to bring the first engineered silicon battery material from the lab all the way to market, as well as tackle early research in the other limiting key components of battery performance; the cathode, electrolyte, and separator.Initially, I built a small team to systematically study numerous parameters affecting the synthesis of Sila’s Si-anode precursor material, which enabled the first level scale-up process. As a scientist, and then as a manager, I helped build and develop advanced characterization techniques; these led to new insights and understanding of the complex processing-structure-property relationships inherent in Sila’s Si-anode material. I oversaw, and then drove the expansion of Sila’s bench-scale materials synthesis line, enhancing the line’s central role in material innovation across all the R&D groups at Sila. I also contributed to writing and serving as a PI on several multi-million dollar government funded projects, including a $10M ARPA-E SCALEUP grant. In addition to the anode-specific work, I helped build and support separate research teams working on radically new cathode and separator materials, and a new bottom-up research effort on electrolytes. I have recruited, trained, and supported over 20 scientists, engineers, and managers. In addition, I have built out two laboratories; worked closely with EHS to enhance safety, efficiency, and numerous processes; partnered with Sila’s Data Systems team to expand our data information systems and data models; and initiated the introduction of a new ESG-focused 401K plan to better align with Sila’s core mission.

Kinestral Technologies builds smart windows for dynamic light control. From a technical standpoint, these smart windows are best described as large transparent Li-ion batteries, although with very different requirements. For example, the primary desire is to have the light transmission of the window quickly switch from ~70% down to ~2%, rather than to store as much charge as possible. I helped build a small metrology group that employed a wide variety of materials characterization techniques to help understand, define and optimize wet chemistry thin film processes at the research level. Using that knowledge we implemented a full suite of in-line metrology tools to support the transfer of materials process to the pilot scale (>1m2 substrate area).As part of the pilot scale-up work, I also designed and commissioned a custom thermo-chemical process tool. This tool was built by a company in Europe and delivery and successful commissioning was completed on schedule and within the expected budget. I also provided process and equipment engineering expertise to enable the scale-up of additional thermal processing and vacuum dry steps.

One significant component of a solar thermal power plant is the solar selective coating, used to improve the efficency of collecting solar radiation and minimizing thermal losses. The coatings group pioneered the manufacturing and durability testing of several different solar selective coatings including a proprietary nano-structured coating. We developed new processes and tooling to improve product functionality and manufacturability, and transfered R&D knowledge to Manufacturing. We investigaged the degradation mechanisms for coating products and subsequently developed improvements that dramatically extended their projected service lifetime and reduced product risk. We also devised new methods and built instrumentation to test and measure process and product; such as spectroscopic methods to monitor solution chemistry, chemometric-based methods for tracking diffusion, surface temperature and humidity measurements under extreme conditions, and high rate temperature cycling of large objects.

I used muttiple materials characterization techniques to build a more robust understanding of as-deposited, and degraded, proprietary nano-structured solar selective coating. An optical model was also built to help connect changes in optical properties with changes to the chemistry and structure of the coating.

Vancouver, British Columbia, Ca

I taught mid- and upper level courses in mechanics, the physics of materials, and surface science. I wrote an extensive set of lecture notes for the physics of materials course, and made considerable use of multi-media content to help give students a more intimate connection to some of the difficult conceptual issues in the mechanics course, such as rotating frames of reference.

Vancouver, British Columbia, Ca

My primary focus was on the engineering of material properties using precise nanoscale control of composition and structure. This was pursued from both an experimental and theoretical perspective and lead to the development of novel tools and methods for both deposition and characterization.

Stanford, Ca, Us

I finished the design and built what was, at the time, the highest-resolution and lowest temperautre angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) chamber based on a laboratory light source. I also explored the extent to which ARPES could demonstrate that a material was a true Fermi Liquid.

Phd, Applied Physics

Project Management Certificate Program - Strategic Leadership Specialization

B.S., Materials Science & Engineering, And Physics