#005 – Scientific Engineering Associate at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory – Arian Aghajanzadeh

Published On November 15, 2015 | Chemical Eng, Engineers, Materials Eng

Arian Aghajanzadeh has a bachelors of Chemical Engineering from the University of California Berkeley, and a Masters in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University where he was Awarded the Energy Engineering and Economics Dean’s Certificate. Upon graduation, Arian came back to the Bay area and began work as a Process Engineer at Applied Materials – the world’s largest semiconductor equipment and materials company. About a year and a half ago, he joined the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory as a Scientific Engineering Associate in the High Tech and Industrial Systems Group.

In our interview, we discuss:

why Arian studied Chemical Engineering.
the masters program at Cornell.
how his interests shifted towards renewable energy technologies.
his experiences at a large company.
the importance of good management.
his work at the LBLabs.
the value of presentability.
getting out of your comfort zones.
And much more…

Selected Links from the Show:

Applied Materials homepage.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory wikipedia page.
Low Power Propulsion and Control brochure for the MITRAC 500 series.

Reach out to Arian Aghajanzadeh via LinkedIn.

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Discussion timestamps:

4:18 – Intro
4:58 – Why Arian studied chemical engineering.
6:58 – Early career plans?
8:20 – Why Arian pursued further studies after undergrad.
10:00 – What Arian specialized in during his masters.
12:19 – Landing the job at Applied Materials (the power of the network).
15:30 – Responsibilities as a Process Engineer at Applied Materials.
18:31 – Making semiconductor wafers in clean rooms.
20:48 – Exciting project at Applied Materials – chamber start-up in Korea.
22:35 – Advice to young engineers entering a large company / Advantages of working in a large company.
25:36 – Talk about the Energy Technologies Research division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
28:07 – Why Arian wanted to join Berkeley Labs.
29:19 – Why Arian thinks Berkeley Labs hired him: presentability.
31:07 – Working as a Scientific Engineering Associate in the Energy Technologies Research division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
33:53 – Collaboration between the private sector and the Lab.
36:10 – A typical week at Berkeley Labs – kind of like being a consultant and running startups.
39:05 – Business acumen and presentation skills crucial to success.
42:11 – Technologies that excite Arian.
44:42 – Concerns with technology investments.
45:34 – Advice to future engineers.