John Amend

John Amend has a diverse range of work experience in the engineering and robotics field. John currently holds the position of VP of Engineering at Berkshire Grey, where they are responsible for leading the engineering team. Prior to this role, they served as the Director of Engineering at the same company. At Berkshire Grey, John contributed to the development of AI and Robotics solutions for omni-channel fulfillment.

Before joining Berkshire Grey, John co-founded Empire Robotics, Inc. in 2012 where they served as the CTO and played a key role in leading the technical team and developing the company's core patents. John successfully secured private funding and research grants and grew the company to 10 full-time employees.

John's career also includes experience at Cornell University where they worked as a Graduate Teaching Specialist and TA Trainer. John was a Robotics Researcher and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, specializing in the invention of the "jamming gripper" concept for flexible robotic gripping. John's research was featured on the cover of PNAS and they were recognized by Popular Science as one of the 25 most awesome college labs in 2011.

John Amend has a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University at Buffalo. John also holds a Master of Science (M.S.) degree and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University.