Ashley Kaiser ’17

Dr. Ashley Kaiser ’17 graduated with a BS degree in Chemical Engineering. While at UMass Amherst, she spent four years working with Professor Christos Dimitrakopoulos to develop carbon metamaterials and low-temperature graphene growth processes via plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, with the goal of improving performance and ensuring compatibility with silicon-based electronics.  
 
Kaiser received her PhD degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2021, where she was a 2018 NDSEG Fellow working in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics under Professor Brian Wardle. She received her MS degree in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT in 2019 during her NDSEG tenure. Kaiser’s graduate research supported aerospace materials development for NASA’s multi-university Space Technology Research Institute for Ultra-Strong Composites by Computational Design (US-COMP), where she focused on nanomaterial processing, model-driven experimental design and validation, and process-structure-property characterization to design bulk nanostructured composite materials with enhanced performance and manufacturability. 
 
Following her PhD, Kaiser worked as a Senior Research Engineer at 3M in the Corporate Research Process Laboratory, Specialty Film and Polymer Processing Group. She currently works as a Senior Process Engineer at 6K Inc., a materials manufacturing start-up based in MA. Her work in the 6K NEXT R&D Division leverages 6K’s industrial microwave plasma technology to develop advanced materials and new products for several markets, including additive manufacturing, energy storage, aerospace, consumer electronics, and more.  6K’s plasma systems are positioned to replace today’s traditional manufacturing with significantly lower cost and a much cleaner, more sustainable process.