I am helping the EMSL teams automate their challenging workflows related to characterizing soil samples in support of understanding the effects of climate change on the physical, chemical, and biological make-up of soil around the world.

Also leading laboratory governance and operations.

Managing a team of Automation Sustain engineers and technicians who support and improve the automated liquid handlers and other robotic systems in a synthetic biology company.

Managing a team of Automation Sustain engineers and technicians who support and improve the automated liquid handlers and other robotic systems in a synthetic biology company.

Responsible for managing a team of five Sustain Engineers and defining team processes around supporting a fleet of over 200 pieces of automation in both R&D and production environments.• Hired and managed five Sustain engineers on both standard and AM/PM 4x10 shifts doing both support and project work.• Managed the creation of a Sustain workshop and parts inventory system.• Designed and managed deployment of a Salesforce instance for asset management, ticketing, preventative maintenance tracking, and parts inventory for all of Zymergen’s automation.• Created metric reports and dashboards for executives, Automation managers, and Sustain team members, and used data monthly to identify the top issues in terms of instrument downtime and Sustain team effort.• Drove team efforts to determine the underlying root causes responsible for the top issues and to implement fixes both within the Sustain team and in coordination with the Application Engineering team.• Revamped and managed the company-wide automation project request and review process used by external stakeholders to initiate projects with the various Automation teams. • Managed automation resources, both engineers and equipment, during lab renovations and new lab build outs.

Hired to help create the Automation Support team from the ground up in a rapidly growing tech company that uses off-the-shelf and in-house created laboratory automation in both R&D and production environments.• Developed new method of teaching labware on Tecan EVO systems and achieved increased accuracy and consistency across all systems. Reduced engineer effort and system downtime by preventing the need to reteach each system every few months.• Trained and mentored new support engineers to be able to handle tickets and perform root cause analysis on systemic problems.• Documented existing processes for support, maintenance, and documented new processes as they were developed.• Revamped the wiki-based runbook documentation system for better organization and ease-of-use for support engineers when in the field.

• Identified the root cause of robot support calls and system downtime by analyzing support data from Salesforce.com exports using Python. Proposed hardware/software changes to improve system uptime.• Provided 24/7 customer support via phone and remote computer access. • Traveled to customer sites to diagnose and resolve problems including electrical, mechanical, and pneumatic systems, specialized robotic assemblies (multichannel pipettors, plate grippers, etc.), integrated 3rd party devices, and labware related issues.• Managed preventative maintenance schedules and performed work for nine systems.

• Provided 24/7 customer support via phone, networked video, and remote computer access. • Traveled to customer sites to diagnose and resolve problems including electrical, mechanical, and pneumatic systems, specialized robotic assemblies (multichannel pipettors, plate grippers, etc.), integrated 3rd party devices, and labware related issues.• Managed preventative maintenance schedules and performed work for 9 systems in the Western US region. • Created 4 “Science for Engineers” presentations and trained other applications engineers on the biology relevant to customer applications.• Trained customers on the operation and maintenance of their systems at the time of installation and as new operators joined the lab.• Programmed Cartesian, four-axis, and six-axis robots using Adept and Precise robotic controllers (Protedyne BioCube and Radius robotic systems) for customer systems.• Installed, tested, and helped maintained 10+ systems at companies all across the US as well as in the UK and Italy.

• Prepared technical material for user documentation for the new “Radius” product line.• Trained customers to be able to program and run molecular biology protocols on Protedyne BioCube and Radius automation systems.• Created a customer training manual for the Radius systems.• Created technical bulletins for BioCube and Radius systems.• Brought existing documents into a newly instituted internal document control system.

• Traveled with members of the Sales team to customer sites to support the sales process.• Analyzed biotech and clinical diagnostics customer laboratory work flows, and designed robotic systems to automate their specific applications.• Acted as intermediary between engineers, biologists, and sales during design process.• Customer projects included automated systems for: - 96-well Magnetic bead based DNA extraction from whole blood. - 384-well PCR and vacuum filter-based post-PCR cleanup for sequencing. - 96-well ELISA assay: sample prep and data analysis on integrated plate reader. - Cell transformation, plating, picking, and screening.• Presented technical data in 2 journal articles and 1 meeting poster.• Provided sales, marketing and technical support at industry trade shows.• Programed and tested customer specific applications.• Conducted Factory Acceptance Testing to ensure proper system performance.• Installed systems and performed Site Acceptance Testing for final system signoff at customer site.• Peer reviewer for the Journal of the Association for Laboratory Automation.

• Adapted baculovirus eukaryotic protein expression and immunoaffinity matrix purification systems to 96-well format for high throughput protein production.• Programmed Tecan robot and smaller benchtop systems to automate the protocols.• Published 1 journal article and 1 book chapter describing the high throughput expression system.• In collaboration with biologists and computer scientists, designed and tested a database and automated front-end software for accessing the I.M.A.G.E. cDNA gene library.

• Developed and taught undergraduate physics and biophysics courses. Upper level Biophysics course drew students from the Biology, Chemistry, and Physics departments.• Started and ran a protein engineering lab to study 2D protein crystallization.• Built optically scrambled Brewster’s angle microscope with students.• Managed 4 students working in my lab over two years.• Acquired annual research grants.• Presented research with students at professional meetings.

• Created custom proteins via computer modeling, site-directed mutagenesis, E. coli protein expression, and affinity chromatography.• Grew and studied 2D crystals of the custom proteins with Brewster’s Angle microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. • Extracted paramagnetic crystals from malaria-infected blood, and analyzed the magnetic properties of crystals with a customized polarized light microscope.