Akita Innovations would like to welcome the Summer 2024 additions to our company. Dr. Zhengguo Zhu (PhD University of Illinois, Urbana) did post-doctoral work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with Professor Timothy Swager and then worked at Konarka Technologies and QD Vision in Massachusetts and more recently at Polyera Corporation in Illinois, PolyJoule Inc. and C2Sense in Massachusetts, and Printed Energy in Arizona. He brings wide expertise in chemical synthesis of small molecules and polymers for high technology and advanced materials applications. Dr. Zhu has authored 46 scientific papers and is an inventor on 17 issued U.S. patents and a number of pending applications.
Jonita Gidel is a Biomedical Engineer with over 20 years of research and commercialization experience including chemical and biological sensor development for the defense industry. She has expertise in technical project management, analytical chemistry, quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC), defense contract program execution, and laboratory management. She has a B.S. in bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh and comes to Akita after an extended tenure at Agentase/ICx Technologies/FLIR Systems/Teledyne FLIR Defense, most recently as an R&D Manager. She served as the Agentase Disclosure Spray Technical and Test Manager for the CIDAS program of record funded by the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense (JPEO-CBRND).
Lucas Rozanski joins Akita after two years at Triton Systems Inc. where he was a Staff Materials Engineer contributing to a variety of government-funded materials development efforts. These including projects to develop dissolvable materials for vascular stents, enhanced thermal insulation materials, and metal-organic frameworks. He received his B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst with a Materials Engineering Certificate.
We extend a warm welcome to the newest Akitans and are confident that they will serve our customers well!