Mailing Address: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Chemical Engineering 66-264, 77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 Office Phone: 617-253-6554 Fax: 617-324-0066 jwallen@mit.edu

I grew up in White Bear Lake, MN, a suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul. My undergraduate career was spent at the University of Minnesota, where I completed a double major in chemical engineering and chemistry with high distinction in May 2007. Along the way I had the pleasure of undertaking a variety of theory-based research projects, including investigation of the diradical character of highly conjugated hydrocarbons, analysis of the effect of interstitial flow on the formation of opaline photonic crystals via collodial assembly, and simulation of the polymerase chain reaction in a microfluidic natural convection system. I was also very active in Minnesota's student chapter of AIChE, where I was an enthusiastic member of the ChemE Car team.

From there I moved directly to MIT and graduate school, where I joined the Green group in January 2008. My research focuses on automated reaction mechanism generation. My current project is the implementation of a new method for estimating pressure-dependent rate coefficients in RMG, the Green group's reaction mechanism generation software.

In summer 2008 I completed the industrial portion of the Practice School program, spending two months at Cabot Corporation in Billerica, MA and one month at Cargill, Inc. in Wayzata, MN.