Michael Christenson

Michael Christenson is a Senior Research Engineer at Zap Energy since January 2023, bringing expertise from their previous role as a Research Engineer at Intel Corporation from April 2018 to January 2023, where Michael focused on dry etch research within Components Research. Prior to this, Michael served as a Graduate Research Assistant at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from January 2013 to February 2018, contributing to Professor David Ruzic's fusion group to investigate the viability of liquid lithium as a first-wall material for future reactor concepts. Michael holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, earned between 2012 and 2018.