Ray Parker

• The Inventor’s Guild is a think tank and consulting firm which promotes entrepreneurial innovation by helping students earn both course credit and payment to either start their own companies or consult for early-stage start-ups. The Guild has won over three dozen awards both nationally and internationally, and performed consultation and contracting services for a dozen start-ups. The Guild currently consists of 15 students from RPI, Harvard, Texas A&M, Georgia Tech, and the University of Pennsylvania.

• Leading five members to build a full scale biodiesel production facility at RPI to be used for sustainable/academic purposes. Currently, proposing, researching and designing Rensselaer’s first full-scale biodiesel/biofuel production facility, using used-vegetable oil and other food oils. The production plant will be used as a learning and experimentation tool for future students and faculty.

• Working on NASA’s Sounding Rocket Contract (NSROC II) to put ten different sounding rockets through balance, vibration, bend, centrifugal, payload deployment and MOI (moment of inertia) testing to ensure rocket and hardware durability during flight.

• Worked as an overnight teaching resident assistant on ExxonMobil’s Bernard Harris Summer Camp and RPI’s PREFACE Program.

• Worked in Process Development (PD) Downstream team to develop novel separation technologies and gain understanding of the current protein purification and drug development platform. Focused on process condition optimization and characterization. • Used cation (CEX) and anion (AEX) exchange, hydrophobic interaction and Protein-A affinity chromatography resins to effectively increase impurity removal and product yield.

• Led and developed an engineering curriculum for middle school students in Troy, as part of an after school program to teach about science and engineering. Helped develop their use of the scientific method, critical thinking and problem solving skills.

• Worked in the Chemical Engineering Department in Professor Koffas’ laboratory investigating the possibilities of metabolically engineering E. coli to produce fatty acids and adding xylose utilizing cells in a co-culture with previously engineered glucose utilizing cells to produce even higher fatty acid yields. Experience with agar gels, PCR protocol, cloning, and making cell cultures.

• Worked in the Applied Physics/Chemistry Lab on the RESOLVE (Regolith & Environment Science & Oxygen & Lunar Volatile Extraction) Moon Rover, a Mission to Mars and ISRU (In-situ resource utilization) project which was designed to characterize lunar gas volatiles on the surface of the moon, with a focus on the Lunar Advanced Volatile Analysis Subsystem, comprised of a manifold, gas chromatograph, mass spectrometer, and Water Droplet Unit.

Biophysics, Biochemistry