Joseph J. Thiebes

About Joseph J. Thiebes

I didn\'t start in the lab. I spent over a decade in industry before entering research. That shaped how I approach scientific problems: with pragmatism, curiosity, and a focus on tools that work.My background is in physical chemistry, microscopy, and scientific software development. I focus on extracting insight from complex systems, especially through time-resolved optical measurements and diffusion modeling. At Bridger Photonics, I develop optimization algorithms and operational software for aerial methane detection: flight path planning, geospatial computation, telemetry, and the tooling that connects LiDAR hardware to actionable data. This work parallels my academic focus on energy carrier transport in semiconducting materials. Both involve modeling movement across space and time and translating it into understanding.I am especially interested in how we observe what moves. Whether tracking photogenerated carriers in a perovskite film or optimizing survey routes over thousands of facilities, the core challenge is the same: thoughtful measurement, rigorous interpretation, and systems that help others do good science.If you are working on hard-to-measure problems or building tools that connect data to insight, I would be glad to connect.

Experience

1. Software Engineer Ii

   Bridger Photonics

   Aug 2025 — Present

   Designed flight path optimization system using Dubins curves, TSP, and density-based clustering for aerial LiDAR operations; built benchmarking framework to quantitatively evaluate algorithm performance against historical flight plans· Developed WGS-84 ellipsoid-aware geospatial computation library with sub-centimeter accuracy, replacing flat-earth approximations across the planning stack· Built end-to-end telemetry system (PostgreSQL, OpenTelemetry, Grafana) capturing algorithm performance, user edit patterns, and operational metrics across desktop and web applications· Delivered features across an internal geospatial web platform including data ingestion, map rendering, and a WCAG accessibility audit with remediation strategy

Education

• Portland State University

  Bachelor of Science in Chemistry; Bachelor of Arts double major in Physics and Liberal Studies

  2013 — 2017

• Portland Community College

  Associate of Science

  2011 — 2013

• Montana State University-Bozeman

  Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry

  2018 — 2024

Skills

• Research
• Teaching
• Tutoring
• Chemistry
• Electrochemistry
• Physics
• Scanning Electron Microscopy
• Ir Spectroscopy
• Raman Spectroscopy
• X-Ray Spectroscopy
• Thermogravimetric Analysis
• Mathematics
• Latex
• Matlab
• Python
• Sql
• Microsoft Office
• Website Development
• Leadership
• Management
• Public Speaking
• Training
• Editing
• Photography
• Photoshop
• Social Media
• Cyclic Voltammetry
• Blogging
• Adobe Photoshop