Experience

Detailee Program Manager, Department of Energy, Germantown, MD

September 2017 - August 2018

(Off-site assignment from ORNL)

Served as a detailee program manager in the Office of Science's Basic Energy Sciences (BES) program office under the Materials Sciences and Engineering Division.

Strategic Planning/Research Associate, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN

July 2016 - July 2017

Advanced “Beyond Moore’s Law” testbeds and detectors under a DOE Field Work Proposal for the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program and served on a government agency panel at the IEEE International Conference on Rebooting Computing.

August 2014 - July 2016

Initiated a new research program to address materials issues that are limiting advanced computing which involved: securing $1 million in external funding through a Strategic Partnership Project; building strategic teams; developing a multi-million dollar business plan; initiating a new Laboratory Directed Research Initiative; serving on an Initiative Review Committee for Quantum Computing Materials and Interfaces; co-organizing two international workshops; and co-writing a technical report requested by the Department of Energy.

February 2010 - August 2014

Advanced energy technology and increased energy access as a principal investigator and collaborator with industry (General Motors-Craig Gittleman, Proton OnSite-Katherine Ayers, and FuelCell Energy-Ludwig Lipp) and other national laboratories (National Renewable Energy Laboratory-Bryan Pivovar and Los Alamos National Laboratory-Yu Seung Kim & Fernando Garzon) that specialized in electron microscopy of materials for energy-related applications (e.g. fuel cells and batteries); gave invited presentations; published in peer-reviewed journals and selected for cover image; and coordinated a system (hardware and software) upgrade between three different companies that resulted in new added quantitative and qualitative capabilities that save time and money; characterized other energy-related materials using electron probe microanalysis (e.g., corrosion-resistant, high-temperature materials (Bruce Pint), gas separation membranes (E. Andrew Payzant), diffusion couples (Nagraj Kulkarni), and dissimilar metal welds).

Detailee Program Manager, Department of Energy, Germantown, MD

July 2015 - July 2016

(Off-site assignment from ORNL)

Full-time detailee program manager in the Office of Science's Basic Energy Sciences (BES) program office under the Materials Sciences and Engineering Division; was a secondary program manager on over 175 full proposals, provided programmatic support for physical behavior of materials, synthesis and processing science, computational materials science, and EPSCoR (spanning the entire DOE); co-wrote outreach documents, including 90 research highlights across entire division (http://science.energy.gov/news/highlights/); and served on the DOE leadership committee for the 2016 Basic Research Needs for Quantum Materials for Energy Relevant Technology Workshop.

Specific funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) listed below:

● DE-FOA-0001204: FY 2015 Continuation of Solicitation for the Office of Science, BES Physical Behavior and Synthesis and Processing Science (Oct. 2014)

● DE-FOA-0001276: Computational Materials Sciences (Jan. 2015)

● DE-FOA-0001432: Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (Oct. 2015)

Legislative Fellow, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC

November 2012 - October 2014

(Off-site assignment from ORNL)

Highest-rated technical expert for U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN); developed and articulated the Senator’s position on energy; analyzed/drafted legislation on 10 issues (including energy, competitiveness, and environment); elevated the role of science in policy-making; prepared 14 background documents and co-wrote numerous speeches (and verified facts); increased Congressional oversight of a nonproliferation issue; revitalized National Academy of Sciences’ forum (doubled participation of Senators) on energy and personalized medicine; organized 2 technology caucuses (50-100 participants) on technology policy and infrastructure; and gave invited presentations. (Off-site assignment from ORNL)

Research Assistant, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY

August 2005 - December 2009

(Conducted research at ORNL from 2006-2009)

Developed characterization methodology for fuel cells; supported commercialization of a gas purification technology; and supported troubleshooting for an international production line with support from a National Science Foundation (NSF) Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) fellowship (only ~30 students selected over 5 years) and graduate program internship to conduct research at ORNL.

Teaching Assistant, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT

January 2005 - July 2005

Planned and taught overview lectures for two courses (inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry), supervised ~10 students during lab, and graded lab reports for two courses.