Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Elwell.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My path didn’t start out in a way that had me dreaming of sitting where I am today. I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin and was convinced that I would someday be a music teacher. Sadly, the older I got, the more I realized I didn’t quite possess the musical talent needed to take that path past a hobby. But Wisconsin was a great place to start a career. While I was studying Chemical Engineering at Michigan Technological University, I had the opportunity to get my first taste of working in manufacturing back in my home state during my school breaks. At MTU, I learned that I had more desire to move into research than manufacturing. I stayed for my master’s and enjoyed all the fun a school that received 202 inches of snow a year on average could provide. After returning to Wisconsin for a bit, and feeling I had my fill of Winter and -40 degrees, I took a Research Engineer position in Atlanta, GA. It was here that I started my family and also where I learned that living somewhere with no snowfall and 100% humidity as a standard forecast was not quite my style. When I hit a growth ceiling at the company I was at, we decided it was time to change it up completely, and that’s when we moved to Utah. Here, my love for the outdoors and distinct seasons was met with a solid economy which has provided exciting options for my career. And! The ability to get both mild winters and heavy snowfalls met by just a drive up the canyon.
My career path has been one of experience building rather than industry or technology focus. To get through university, I was really open to whatever opportunities presented. I took jobs as a waitress, stagehand, garbage woman, pet shop sales rep, receptionist… Really, anywhere I could get hours.
While all those experiences definitely taught me a lot, my first relevant experience was my position as a production technician winding stators for electric motors at Leeson Electric during summers and school breaks. After that, I took some time off classes and had an internship position as a Process Engineer at Mercury Marine working on the paint lines for outboard motors. Here I learned about process control and manufacturing in general. After this experience, I became really interested in the world of research and decided to focus more in that direction, so I picked up a research assistantship back at MTU. I gained funding for a master’s degree and decided to continue my education. After graduation, I accepted a position at SC Johnson working in research in aerosols. My time here was short, but our team managed a few patentable inventions that you may have used yourself! Due to contract lengths and the aforementioned -40-degree temperatures that caused my eyelashes to freeze shut, I next took an opportunity in Atlanta with a specialty chemicals company working on photopolymer printing plates.
It was here I had my first chance as a project lead in product development. I really enjoyed the problem-solving, but the company did not have much room for growth, and I decided to try a different climate altogether.
This brought me to Salt Lake City and the world of renewable energy. I spend some time with a company called Technology Holdings, working on bio-fuel projects while consulting for another company named Ceramatec. It was here that I was introduced to the team I currently work with. The team at Ceramatec was awarded a big flight program with NASA, and they asked me to join them full-time. What an opportunity!
After 4 years with Ceramatec and the rollout of OxEon Energy, I was looking for experience in aerospace manufacturing. Something I was heavily introduced to at Ceramatec and really enjoyed. Nammo provided a larger company base and the position to manage the Engineering and Quality teams in the manufacture of launch tubes for the Shoulder Fired Systems division of Nammo. This position was heavily focused on building teams and systems to support operations and compliance to AS9100 standards. I really enjoyed the business systems improvement and manufacturing control side of this business and had a great team to work beside.
In early 2021, after a bit of time off to decide what would come next, the team at OxEon approached me to ask if I would be interested in rejoining the team. They had spent the last 3 years building from a startup, and I was really excited about all the programs and opportunities they were facing. I rejoined with my previous position as the Director of Product Development and was later promoted to Chief Operating Officer. I am beyond excited to continue to bring the world of aerospace manufacturing to OxEon as we continue to grow.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Smooth roads rarely lead to an interesting story. No, it has not always been smooth. There were hurdles along the way that I didn’t fully recognize until I had passed them. I ran into a few roadblocks based on the fact that I was a female in engineering and later in defense. Early in my career, I was told directly that there were jobs I couldn’t handle because I was a young mother. I would run into many situations where people would question my qualifications for a given task based on my sex or age. Instances where my questions were seen as attacks instead of trying to gain an understanding of the existing processes. It was an interesting time, looking back. Because these bumps were not uncommon in a work setting in the early 2000s, they didn’t necessarily cause me distress, more frustration than anything. I expected them, even though I didn’t understand why my career path would have these extra struggles. I knew I could do a given job, I had ideas on how to do it better than it was currently being done, but I wasn’t getting the opportunity to prove myself. I wasn’t provided the same resources in some of those early positions as my male or older counterparts.
But to be open, those struggles forced me to change direction in an otherwise comfortable situation. They provided the platform from which to jump to a new opportunity. To find teams that valued and complimented the skills I have to offer. To learn how to work for organizations that respected contributions made as opposed to only years served or other influences. I have thrived under leaders who are open to questions and new ways of doing things. Who has the patience to explain processes to me that I didn’t fully appreciate or understand.
I have received phenomenal support from both male and female colleagues throughout the years, and while the struggles are always memorable, I definitely wouldn’t be where I am today without the support and mentorship I received throughout my career, that I continue to receive.
Now at OxEon, our struggles are mainly because we take on challenges no one in the world has solved before. Our team focuses on failure recovery as a tool for growth and improvement. When we struggle, we are presented with an opportunity to learn and move forward on a stronger path than we were previously on.
As you know, we’re big fans of OxEon Energy. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
OxEon Energy was founded just over 5 years ago but has over a 30-year history in renewable fuels. Our current programs are funded by NASA, the US Department of Energy, the US Department of Defense, and commercial entities. Our technology suite focuses on fossil-free fuel production from water and carbon dioxide, along with a variety of energy sources. We are the developers and producers of solid oxide fuel cells and electrolysis stacks, with the longest continuously running group in this area in the world. We also have the only flight-qualified solid oxide electrolyzer in history, which is currently operating aboard the NASA Perseverance Rover. We also produce systems for fuel reformation and generation with our commercially available Plasma Reformation technology, as well as our modular Fischer Tropsch reactors, which have been demonstrated at the 120,000 liters annual scale. These systems are capable of making synthetic fuels to be used in transportation. What we are known for, most proud of, and what sets us apart from our market is our work in fuel production off the surface of the Earth.
Our team was the development force behind the solid oxide electrolyzer aboard NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover. The MOXIE program, or the Mars Oxygen In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU Experiment, is the first of its kind effort in ISRU (or, in generic terms, making what you need from what you have locally, which in this case, locally is Mars). The goal of the project… To produce oxygen from Mars carbon dioxide. Through this program, our team produced the only flight-qualified, and then later Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 9 SOEC device in history, which has successfully produced the first ever oxygen on Mars. TRL 9 means the system has been flight proven!
The system team was led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and partnered with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the system integration. But, at the heart of MOXIE was the team at OxEon Energy with the stack design, development, and production. We took this stack design from TRL3 (prototype) to TRL6 (flight qualified) in an unheard of 23 months, producing a hermetically sealed stack capable of withstanding the forces seen at launch, entry decent, and landing.
Our team has since scaled up this demonstration system for fuel production applications intended for both the moon and Mars and continue our collaborations with NASA.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you.
In one of our many reviews with NASA during the MOXIE program, I heard my favorite response to the question of luck… Our little team had passed a review that allowed us to begin production of flight hardware. This is no small feat in the world of aerospace, and there was a slew of people at the beginning of the project who did not believe we would succeed. After passing our review, someone made the comment that we were lucky. One of our reviewers quickly replied, “It’s amazing how lucky one can be with a well thought out, well executed plan.”
There is always luck that plays into our lives. Luck that job openings have appeared throughout my career that gave me a growth path. Luck that I moved to Salt Lake when I did to be here when the MOXIE program started. Luck that I was introduced to this team and hired on for a role completely different from what I would end up doing. Luck in being in the right space at the right time. Luck that I was born to a family that didn’t project limitations on us based on our location, class, gender… Luck that my personal limitations are few. I could go on for days on all the ways I’ve benefited from situations that just seemed to “happen.” Yes. My life has been absolutely chocked full of lucky situations. But there is a required level of risk taking, planning, sheer will, and execution required to turn that good luck into good fortune.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.oxeonenergy.com
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/18022715
Image Credits
JPL-Caltech
