Measurable, falsifiable outputs in domains that look intuitive from outside.
Fifteen years at the intersection of chemistry, physics, and clean energy. Currently leading R&D at Aepnus Technologies and building Nucora through Interpretive Health LLC.
Current
Leading R&D and pilot operations on next-generation industrial electrolyzers.
Founder
A personal-health analytics platform with deterministic compute, zero hallucinations.
Previously
Industrial CO₂ electroreduction, national-lab solar fuels, and analytical chemistry.
// About
Materials science instincts, applied where they aren't obvious.
> PROFILE
I’m a materials scientist and R&D leader. For more than fifteen years I’ve worked at the intersection of chemistry, physics, and clean energy. That has meant solar-to-fuels research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, industrial CO2 electroreduction at Twelve Benefit Corp, and next-generation electrolyzer development at Aepnus Technologies.
> METHODOLOGY
My PhD work spanned synthesis, characterization, and exciton dynamics of II-VI semiconductor nanocrystals, alongside ab-initio modeling using first-principles approaches such as Hartree-Fock and density functional theory. Across the postdoc and LBNL years the toolkit grew to include ultrafast spectroscopy (transient absorption, time-correlated single-photon counting) and beamline-based x-ray methods (XAS, XES, RIXS) at the Advanced Light Source and SLAC. Thin-film synthesis by sputtering, ALD, and electrodeposition rounded out the experimental side.
The instinct that came out of all of that is to want measurable, falsifiable outputs in domains that look intuitive from outside.
Compute first against the source data. Verify the values. Then narrate what the values do and don’t show.
That sequencing shaped how I led research at LBNL and how I built the characterization function at Twelve. In 2024 I turned the same instinct toward my own personal-health data, which lived across ten apps that didn’t read each other. Over fourteen months the pipeline I built for myself became Nucora, now operated by Interpretive Health LLC.
// Experience
From watershed chemistry to industrial electrolyzer pilots.
FEB 2025 — PRESENT
OAKLAND, CA
Head of R&D — Aepnus Technologies
Oversee R&D and Pilot Electrolyzer Programs, serving as Aepnus’s program-management office. Designed the program structure that aligns matrixed teams to clear milestones, budgets, and objectives. Direct six engineers and scientists across the active pilot facility and the next-generation platform.
Oversaw the first pilot build and successful operation of a 1,000-hour campaign in Oakland. Led the team to the first lab demonstration of anode-side hydrogen recycling. Designed the first formal performance-review process with 360-degree feedback. Customer-facing product development in support of go-to-market has generated over $100,000 in new revenue. Promoted from Program Manager in April 2026.
2022 — DEC 2024
BERKELEY, CA
Director of Characterization & R&D Program Lead — Twelve Benefit Corp
Led discovery and innovation work on next-generation membrane electrode assembly designs and formulations for industrial CO2electroreduction. Scaled the Characterization team from 4 to 20 in two years, building new functions across production support, failure analysis, and dimensional metrology.
Led degradation-mode investigations that delivered a 200x increase in product lifetime, measured as total hours prior to failure. Authored Twelve’s first team-operating-principles document.
NOV 2015 — DEC 2021
BERKELEY, CA
Career Research Scientist — Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Synthesized, characterized, and integrated metal oxide and nitride semiconductor thin films, protective coatings, and catalysts for solar-driven conversion of sunlight, water, and CO2 into renewable fuels. Funded across the Liquid Sunlight Alliance, the HydroGEN Advanced Water Splitting Materials Consortium, and the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis.
Engineered and built novel spectroscopy instrumentation to identify performance limitations in photoelectrochemical materials, and mentored seventeen students, postdocs, and supervisees over the period. Featured in Berkeley Lab’s Next 90researcher series in 2021.
JUL 2013 — NOV 2015
BERKELEY, CA
Post-Doctoral Fellow — Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, LBNL
Investigated optoelectronic properties of bismuth vanadate photoanodes via optical and x-ray spectroscopy paired with density functional theory modeling, under Dr. Ian D. Sharp. Beamline work at the Advanced Light Source and SLAC. Designed and built custom time-correlated single-photon-counting and photoluminescence systems with integrated cryogenic temperature control.
2006 — 2009
SACRAMENTO, CA
Analytical Chemist — United States Geological Survey
Quantified pesticide loads in watershed water, soil, and fish tissues to support agricultural and urban runoff monitoring. Developed an HPLC-DAD detection method for herbicides in natural waters down to 5 parts per trillion.
// Education
Chemistry, with the math underneath built in from the start.
2013 / SANTA CRUZ, CA
PhD in Chemistry — University of California, Santa Cruz
Thesis: Synthesis, characterization, and exciton dynamics of II-VI semiconducting nanomaterials and ab-initio studies for applications in explosives sensing. Advisor: Prof. Jin Z. Zhang. Graduate Dissertation Quarter Sabbatical Fellowship, 2012.
2009 / SACRAMENTO, CA
BS in Chemistry, Minor in Physics — California State University, Sacramento
cum laude; Dean’s Award; Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society; Outstanding Graduating Chemistry Major.
// Publications
Eighty-one peer-reviewed papers, most about light or water.
0
PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS
0 +
TOTAL CITATIONS
h- 0
H-INDEX, MAY 2026
PLACEMENTS
Across materials science, photoelectrochemistry, and inorganic chemistry. Placements include Nature Energy, Nature Materials, Nature Communications, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, PNAS, Joule, and the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
2021
CuBi2O4: Electronic structure, optical properties, and photoelectrochemical performance limitations of the photocathode.
2020
Saw-tooth heat-cycling nitridation of metallic Cu yields first photoactive p-Cu3N for PEC applications.
2020
Fermi level engineering of passivation and electron transport materials for p-type CuBi2O4.
2019
Beneficial CuO phase segregation in the ternary p-type oxide photocathode CuBi2O4.
2015
Tunable Photoluminescent Core/Shell Cu+-Doped ZnSe/ZnS Quantum Dots Codoped with Al3+, Ga3+, or In3+.
FOR THE FULL PUBLICATION LIST, SEE ORCID 0000-0002-7953-4229 →
// Talks
From DOE program reviews to invited seminars in Tuscany.
SELECTED VENUES
Invited talks and seminars across the Materials Research Society Spring Meeting (2021), ACS Fall (2020), the Electrochemical Society Spring Meeting (New Orleans, 2017), and the 21st International Conference on Solid State Ionics (Padova, 2017). International invited seminars at EPFL (Switzerland), Gordon Research Conferences on Renewable Energy Solar Fuels (Tuscany) and Defects in Semiconductors, and the UC Santa Cruz Department of Chemistry.
Recurring presenter at U.S. Department of Energy program reviews for the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (2013–2021). Co-organizer and session chair at the Molecular Foundry User Meeting (2021). Moderated panel discussions at LBNL.
// Currently Building
A personal-health platform, built like a research pipeline.
> ORIGIN
In 2024 I started building a personal-health analytics platform for myself. My own data was scattered across ten apps, none of which read each other. I’m a chemist by training, so I built it the way I’d build a research pipeline: deterministic compute first, narration second. Over fourteen months it became Nucora.
> ACTIVE PRE BETA
Nucora is now operated by Interpretive Health LLC and is in pre-beta. The architecture pairs neural language models with classical symbolic logic so the math is grounded in the underlying data, and is the subject of a 2026 provisional patent application. Internal validation currently sits at over nine thousand verified claims with zero hallucinations.
“This is my first business. The engineering side I’ll stake; the business side I’m still figuring out, and I’m gathering as much information and guidance as I can.”
If you’re an investor, operator, or advisor who works with founders bridging deep tech and consumer products — I’d value the conversation.
// Get in touch
Open to a few kinds of conversation.
OPEN TO:
Advisor and investor conversations around Nucora; research collaborations in materials, electrolysis, and clean energy; speaking, mentorship, and panel invitations. Slow but reliable on email.