MEET THE TEAM
MEET THE TEAM
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Benjamin Brown, PhD
President & Co-Founder
Dr. Brown developed the Dedalus Project which is a widely used open-source framework for solving partial differential equations; this framework powers our modeling efforts. He leads our liquid membrane design research and oversees the research team.
Dr. Brown is an expert, with decades of experience, in hydrodynamics, theoretical modeling, and the use of super-computers programming for modeling and analysis. He has served as a tenured university professor of astrophysics (University of Colorado, Boulder), teaching classes at all levels in astronomy, fluid dynamics, and mathematical methods for computation and data analysis.
Dr. Brown’s academic work was recently featured on the cover of “Nature” magazine (Moment in the Sun: Near-Surface Instabilities Drive the Solar-Magnetic Dynamo.)
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Brennan Gantner, PhD
CEO & Co-Founder
Dr. Gantner is an accomplished rocket engineer. He has designed and flown space-certified hardware (equipment/machinery) successfully and has over 20 years of experience in project management as well as prototype design, building and testing with NASA, Lockheed Martin and NOAA.
He translates Dr. Brown’s designs into buildable devices: his skills in team leadership, modern additive manufacturing techniques, and material science have underpinned the development of our clean power infrastructure systems. Dr. Gantner also brings expertise in clean tech entrepreneurship, leading the core team who are developing our business.
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Jessie Kline
Chief Operating Officer (COO)
As COO, Jessie is heads up corporate operations including marketing, finance, human resources, supply chain management, partner development, and office administration.
Jessie has a history of successful early leadership in startups and thrives in the chaos of an emerging company culture.
While in college she interned in multiple labs while trying to decide between a degree in chemistry and a degree in religious studies.
She earned a B.A. in Religious Studies from Pitzer College, a member of the Claremont Colleges.
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Madisen McCleary, PhD
Materials Engineer
Maddy is the lead materials engineer at Skip Tech. Her work involves the creation of novel carbon materials for various components of the Skip Tech Power Cell. She also manages laboratory activities and conducts research with the team.
She is an expert in fuel cells, corrosion studies, coating technologies and material design and manufacturing. She enjoys studying and working with materials of all types and is especially interested in applying expertise to renewable systems.
Maddy earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Portland and a PhD in Materials Science from Montana State University.
Heidi Schlunt
Research Scientist
Heidi helps develop and implement power cell testing techniques, conducts cell electrode corrosion testing and assists in data analysis.
She enjoys the demands of a startup environment and is excited to be part of the fight against climate change.
Heidi received a BS in Physics from Walla Walla University and a MS in Physics from Washington State University.
Tim Kieltyka
Mechanical Design Engineer
Tim is the lead mechanical design engineer and drafts and refines all power cells and prototypes, sources materials and equipment, and heads up computer numerical control (CNC) operations to automate the manufacturing process.
Tim brings over thirty years of experience in product development, minding the precision required to produce high-accuracy parts with excellent physical properties directly from a computer-aided design (CAD) file.
Tim has a BS in Mechanical Engineering Technology from the University of Dayton.
Karana Dunn
Electrochemist
Karana is in charge of Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) measurement and analysis, reference electrode manufacturing and testing and hydrogen absorption measurements at Skip Tech.
She started her career in battery technologies, gaining expertise in electrochemical cells that helped land a role in the flow battery industry as the R&D engineer at ESS Inc. She is passionate about new technologies and wants to transform the future through renewable storage.
Karana received a BS in Chemistry from Portland State University and a MS in Chemistry from the University of Oregon.
Morgan Maurice
Lab Technician
Morgan does a bit of everything at Skip Tech. She assists in the creation of carbon materials, routinely builds power cells and tests them and helps with numerous projects that pop up in the day of an emerging company.
She has extensive experience as a lab technician, primarily in the bioscience and health industries, mastering a skill set that is transferable to designing and building energy storage systems.
Morgan has a BS in Forensic Science with an emphasis on Biology from the University of Southern Mississippi.
JOIN OUR TEAM
Email careers@skiptechnology.com