Thayne Edwards Email & Phone Number

Bend, Oregon, United States

Bend, Oregon, United States

As one of initial 4 employees hired, grew role as the team expanded to more than 150. I drove efforts in discovering failures and root causes, device verification activity, and proofs of concept. Partner with universities to develop novel ideas that enable and enhance molecular diagnostics using core Qorvo technology and with international company to develop essential core molecular technology at Qorvo.Highlights:• Integral to reducing failure rate from 25% to 1% through leading team of engineers and scientists in completing root-cause analysis, value analysis, and experiments.• Enabled access and insight into large pool of previously untapped data, which contributed to discovery of root cause of failure, via development of new tools.• Improved efficiency and effectiveness of data analysis via creation of suite of software tools with Python and deployed tools to manufacturing partners and customers for better knowledge transfer.• Evaluated invention disclosures for patentability and reviewed existing patent portfolios to make recommendations to legal counsel regarding continued relevance of technology.

Bend, Oregon

As one of initial 4 employees hired, grew role as the team expanded to more than 150. I drove efforts in discovering failures and root causes, device verification activity, and proofs of concept. Partner with universities to develop novel ideas that enable and enhance molecular diagnostics using core Qorvo technology and with international company to develop essential core molecular technology at Qorvo.Highlights:• Secured $10M to develop COVID-19 test after delivering proof of concept that instrument designed for protein assays could be converted to use DNA and RNA.• Qorvo Tech Summit 2017 Best Presentation (coauthored).

Owned biosensor packaging lab providing high-end, reliable solutions to team members of 10 scientists and 6 technical staff. Co-led research into biosensor platform for diagnosing dangerous pathogenic bacterial samples in low-resource environments, dubbed BaDx (Bacillus anthracis Diagnostics). Developed several novel, integrated plastic laminate fluidic valves and unique storage chamber for parallel sample containment and subsequent laboratory analysis.• Recognized with Federal Laboratories Consortium Excellence in Technology Transfer Award in 2015, sole FLC award for Sandia in 2015, for work with Aquila Technologies in licensing technology and establishing CRADA partnership related to BaDx.Highlights:• Won 2014 R&D 100 Award as lead for research on BaDx; product was recognized as one of "Today's 100 Greatest Innovations of 2015,” published in December 2015 issue of Popular Science Magazine.• Developed method to interrogate interfacial properties of laminate junctions with physical model of interfaces to predict behavior in complex structures; work influenced several projects, including MEMS gas valves, cellular-based sensing platforms, and many electrochemical-based sensors.• Won 2010 R&D 100 Award for creating method for rapid diagnosis of large number of sensors, which enabled investigation of multiple design parameter effects; research was published and patented.• Authored LabView user interface and data analysis for SAW-based POC instrumentation.

While mentoring graduate students in the Yager laboratory, I developed a disposable microfluidic package for a salivary diagnostics device based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) imaging. The package was able to remove the complexity of saliva and deliver a more consistent sample to the sensor. I also assisted a student in developing a custom piezo-electric spotter for patterning the SPR sensors with analytes.

Phd, Electrical Engineering

Ms, Bioengineering

Bs, Chemical Engineering