I was born and raised in Broomfield, Colorado (a suburb of Denver). I spent large parts of my youth playing outside with my friends and playing video games inside. I also spent a lot of time listening to and playing music. I played the piano at home, the cello in middle school orchestra, and upright bass in high school. Even now, music plays a big part in my everyday life. I was always curious about how things worked, and I loved to build things. In high school, I was highly interested in chemistry, anatomy, and photography. I wanted to be a professional photographer, but I decided to pursue engineering instead.
Presenting my laser holography project at the regional science fair.
My friend and I during a high school orchestra performance.
College graduation ceremony.
Catalina Island and amateur photography.
I started my college career at the University of Northern Colorado. I didn\’t get into the engineering schools of my choice, so I went to Northern Colorado for two years to complete basic level coursework. For my third year, I transferred to Utah State University on scholarship to start my electrical engineering courses. At the end of my third year, I decided I no longer wanted to pursue electrical engineering as a career, and decided to instead get a degree in chemistry. Despite leaving the electrical engineering field, I still use many of the concepts I learned for scientific instrument maintenance and repair. For my last year, I returned to Northern Colorado to finish a degree in chemistry. I graduated in Aug. 2005 with an ACS certified B.S. in Chemistry.
After I graduated, I spent two years working in industry. First, I worked for Fresenius Medical Care in Ogden, UT. Here, I started to really mold my chemistry abilities, particularly in instrumental analysis and wet chemistry. Instrumental methods included AA spectroscopy, FTIR, and ICP-AES. After a year, I was offered a new job at Kelatron, Inc. that included a more pay and a promotion over my position at Fresenius. I did heavy metal analysis (Hg, Pb, Cd, As) of chelates using AA spectroscopy. In addition to the instrumental analysis, I learned a lot about instrument maintenance and repair (as the equipment was constantly breaking).
Our Ninpo group in Las Vegas.
Working in the analytical chem lab at Kelatron, Corp.
My lab (home) during my graduate school years.
My mother and I at my graduate school graduation.
In 2008, I decided to pursue an advanced degree in chemistry. I moved to Golden, Co to start my PhD work at Colorado School of Mines. I took an offer to study under Dr. Kent Voorhees in his mass spectrometry lab. My the focus of my primary project was to investigate the combustion products of biodiesel additives to see if they were producing nitro polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. I also participated in a variety of other projects including investigating the presence of levamisole, a deworming agent used in animals, in patients who have used cocaine; bacterial identification using MOLI MS, multivariate analysis, and lateral flow immunochromatography. I also learned to use a variety of mass spectrometric and microbiological techniques. In December 2014, I graduated from Colorado School of Mines with a PhD in Applied Chemistry.
During my graduate school career, I decided to fulfill my lifelong dream of going to Japan. I planned and saved, and in May of 2010, I spent a month traveling in Japan alone. I went to Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Kobe, Fukuoka, and Nagasaki. I ate lots of delicious food, met lots of wonderful people, and saw many amazing places. While it was the fulfillment of a dream, it only marked the beginning of a lifelong relationship with Japan. While traveling there, I met my wonderful wife, Koume, who I have now been together with for 9 years.
Koume and I at a temple in Shiobara, Japan.
At Nagoya Castle.
At the Shorinji Kempo head dojo, in Tadotsu, Japan.
With my adviser, Dr. Michisato Toyoda, at Osaka University.
After graduating in 2014, I took a year off to clear my relax and clear my head. In 2015, I took a job at Osaka University and moved to Osaka Japan. I lived there for three years and during that time, I worked on three major projects: analysis of cortisol in saliva to assess stress levels in a person; helium isotope measurement using ion counting and MULTUM MS; and development of a novel method of time-of-flight MS calibration. I also mentored graduate students on their projects and taught short courses on mass spectrometry and chemometrics. I spent three years living and working in Japan. I took up Japanese calligraphy and Shorinji Kempo martial arts as hobbies while I was there, and actively practice both. I also collected \”goshuin,\” which are stamps that can be collected at temples and shrine. I loved the time I spent in Japan, and it has changed my perception of how the world works.
In 2018, I returned to the U.S. I have been actively consulting in the last year as well as developing some new skills. I have been teaching myself python programming and website development, and honing my data science skills. I am looking for new opportunities in statistics and data science (particularly applied to scientific research). I would also like to return to Japan for work someday, if it\’s in the cards. I speak Japanese at a conversational level and I would love the opportunity to use my skills in my everyday life.
With Drs. Chris Cox and Keith Fagerquist at Joshua Tree National Park during the MSACL 2019 conference.
At the ATK Orbital rocket display near Tremonton, Utah.