David Hietala

David Hietala has a diverse work experience starting in 2011 as an Undergraduate Student Research Assistant at Cornell University, where they investigated the feasibility of organic semiconductors for photovoltaic solar cell applications. David then worked as a Renewable Energy Development Program Intern at GE Power & Water in 2012, where they invented an algorithm and developed a pricing tool using VBA in Excel to inform pricing decisions. In 2013, they served as a Software Support Intern at CipherPoint Software, Inc., configuring SharePoint test environments and developing custom reports in Salesforce. Concurrently, they also worked as a Graduate Student Research Assistant at the University of Michigan, conducting experiments and designing custom reactors to study kinetics of biocrude oil production from microalgae. Since 2018, David has been working at Exponent, starting as an Associate and progressing to a Senior Associate, Senior Engineer, and currently, a Managing Engineer.

David Hietala pursued their education in Chemical Engineering, starting with a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University, which they completed between 2009 and 2013. David then went on to the University of Michigan, where they obtained a Master of Science in Engineering in Chemical Engineering from 2013 to 2015. Following this, they continued their studies at the University of Michigan and successfully completed a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Chemical Engineering from 2013 to 2018.

In addition to their academic achievements, David Hietala obtained the Professional Engineer (PE) certification from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation in August 2022.