Biography
Dr Downey earned a BA in German and a BS in chemical engineering in 2002, as well as an MS in chemical engineering in 2004, all from the University of Rhode Island. He earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Michigan State University in 2016 with a research focus on the toughening of carbon fiber composite materials and nanocomposite materials.
Dr Downey has close to 12 years of industry working experience. He worked in the exhaust gas aftertreatment industry for Emitec GmbH in Lohmar Germany as a research engineer from 2005 to 2007 and in Emitec Inc in Rochester Hills, Michigan as an applications engineer from 2007 to 2012. After earning his Ph.D., he worked as a Senior Material Scientist at Magic Leap Inc in Ft Lauderdale Florida, from 2017 to 2020, specializing in carbon fiber composite materials and materials characterization. Since fall of 2020, Dr Downey has been an assistant teaching professor in the mechanical and materials engineering department at FIU.
As a six sigma black belt, Dr Downey has mentored six sigma green belts in their certification projects for a customer in the consumer electronics industry.
At FIU, Dr Downey has taught classes in numerical methods, heat transfer, materials and has co-taught the senior design capstone class series. His areas of expertise are in composite and nanocomposite materials, materials characterization and six sigma.
Education
- Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, Michigan State Univeristy (2016)
- MS in Chemical Engineering, University of Rhode Island (2004)
- BA in German, University of Rhode Island (2002)
- BS in Chemical Engineering, University of Rhode Island (2002)