Hi 👋😄, I’m Luke!
I’m a PhD mechanical engineer who has led R&D in several contexts: university lab, Fortune 500, and climate-tech startup. I specialize in the messy early tech stage—i.e., figure out what to build, build it, test, refine, repeat, and ultimately ship. Along the way: 8 publications, 2 patents granted, $20M+/yr in customer savings, 50% process time reductions, and lots of prototypes built.
Outside of work, I love to be active, outside, and with friends: surfing, swimming, dancing, hiking, roadtrips, traveling, etc.
I also love languages and culture. Currently bouncing between learning French, Portuguese, and Spanish depending on what trip is coming up.
“Luke is a bundle of positive energy and he rips through engineering projects. Grateful to have had the chance to work with him!”
Peter Reinhardt
CEO @ Charm Industrial
“I worked alongside Luke as a peer and collaborator, and I think very highly of him as a mechanical engineer. He consistently tackled difficult, ambiguous problems with speed, rigor, and a hands-on mindset. Luke has impressive skills in design and fabrication. In our work together, Luke built spargers, ventilation setups, pressurized filtration systems, and catalyst beds, which enabled rapid testing and scale-up. Luke’s designs and rapid prototyping were often the key unlock in demonstrating lab solutions at larger scale.
On a critical impurity-removal effort, Luke explored multiple mechanical design approaches in parallel and helped drive scale-up from pilot to commercial in under six months. He was especially effective at bridging disciplines by asking thoughtful questions, quickly absorbing chemical and process knowledge, and working across teams to lead a pilot-scale pyrolysis unit despite limited prior experience.
Luke communicates clearly and thoughtfully, delivering data-backed presentations with a strong narrative that technical teams and leadership can trust. He’s the kind of engineer who goes all-in on hard problems, finds the right people and resources to solve them, and gets results.”
Andrew Thomas
Principle Petrochemical Scientist @ Charm Industrial
“I co-advised Luke during his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at UCSB. Luke is a force to be reckoned with. He combines technical mastery and research skills with work ethic and an ability to teach himself whatever he has to. This combination makes him able to tackle any problem. Something else that always struck me about Luke is how he will never say something is impossible, even if the odds are stacked against him. He will give it his 100%, and often ends up proving everyone else wrong. And after he's succeeded, he is exceptional at sharing his work--he is one of the best presenters I've worked with.”
Elliot Hawkes
Professor of Mech. Eng. @ UC Santa Barbara
“Luke has the rare, magical ability to see solutions with imperfect information. Luke is able to learn the fundamental science/engineering principles quickly. But reality rarely matches these textbook examples. This gap is where Luke shines. He is able to bridge the space between theory and the real world, building devices that work in the real world.
He is able to bring together a wide array of stakeholders, including chemists, engineers, operators, and business development. He ensured alignment on key goals, and then executed quickly on those goals. Critically, Luke was able to iterate quickly, generating robust prototypes which dialed in business critical processes. This clear, quick pace allowed everyone to see where things were, where they were going, and how the results would impact the company and the climate.
Perhaps Luke's biggest super power is his ability to bring people together. People love to help Luke because it's abundantly clear Luke loves helping others. He consistently goes out of his way to enable and accelerate other people's goals. And that generosity builds on itself. It's easy for people to say they believe in creating a positive company culture; Luke actually embodies it.”
Ed Young
Research Director @ Charm Industrial
