Jacob Brejcha

Background

About Jacob Brejcha

In December 2022, I graduated with my Master's in chemical engineering from Purdue University. This program consisted of undergraduate and graduate-level chemical engineering coursework, graduate-level concentration courses, and management courses. Through the program, I completed an industry-sponsored capstone research project in lyophilization in Summer 2022. In this project, I expanded my skills in Python. I relied heavily on Python libraries Pandas, NumPy, and SciPy for data analysis and Matplotlib for data visualization. I also enhanced my laboratory skills and critical thinking skills as I collected data. I earned my B.S. in chemistry from Purdue in Spring 2021. For the last couple years of undergrad, I conducted research in Dr. David Warsinger's mechanical engineering group on fabricating and analyzing inverse opal structures. I also completed research in Dr. Greg Michalski's analytical chemistry group in stable isotopic analysis of nitrogen and oxygen in nitrate. Along with studying chemistry and conducting environmentally-related research, I obtained a minor in environmental politics and policy as an undergrad. Together, my research and coursework have reinforced my commitment to pursuing a career with an importance to the environment. I have begun to understand both the scope of environmental problems and the ways to consider solving them; I see being able to apply my evolving knowledge and critical thinking skills toward environmental problems as my career goal. While obtaining my Masters, I saw a unique ability to pursue environmental problems within university technology transfer. I started as an intern in the office and then transitioned to a full time role with the office. In this position, I’ve gained exposure to environmental technologies, startups, and corporate initiatives. In the future, I’d like complement the skills I’ve furthered in communication and critical thinking with a position in process development engineering. As a process development engineer, I could use my lab-scale chemistry knowledge and process-scale chemical engineering knowledge for efficient resource use, an environmental goal. Combining the skills from these roles could lead me toward process or product development engineering in a ClimateTech startup.