Tim, the resident Mad Scientist at Matrix MDT, grew up in rural Northern California. He began his professional career in 2001 when he joined the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF, now CalFire) as a firefighter. During his tenure, Tim fought some of the largest wildfires in the U.S. In 2006, he enlisted in the U.S. Army as a Helicopter Technician and deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and other locations with the 160 th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne). In 2013, following his military service, Tim continued his aviation career as a defense contractor at Columbia Helicopters, where he once again deployed to Afghanistan as a Crew Chief. When not deployed as a contractor, he flew numerous firefighting and support missions stateside. After Columbia, Tim was employed at Northwest UAV as a Lead R&D Engineering Technician. Among other duties, Tim was responsible for the development and testing of UAV engines for both commercial and military applications. In 2019, Tim accepted a position as a Lead Integration Engineer at Blue Origin, initially supporting research and development for the BE-4 rocket engine and eventually assuming a Manufacturing Planner/Manufacturing Engineer position responsible for a large portion of the BE-7 rocket engine build. Tim holds a private helicopter pilot’s license and is a licensed UAV pilot.