Ashley L. Kaiser, Ph.D.
Senior Process Engineer at 6K Inc: 6K NEXT Research and Development
Former Senior Research Engineer at 3M Company, Specialty Film and Polymer Processing
Former National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellow
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Dr. Ashley Kaiser received her Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2021, where she was a 2018 NDSEG Fellow working in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics under Professor Brian L. Wardle. She received her M.S. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT in 2019, and her B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2017.
Following her Ph.D., Ashley worked as a Senior Research Engineer at 3M in the Corporate Research Process Laboratory, Specialty Film and Polymer Processing Group. She currently works as a Senior Process Engineer at 6K Inc., a materials manufacturing company. Her work in the 6K NEXT R&D Division leverages 6K's industrial microwave plasma technology to develop advanced materials and new products for several markets, including additive manufacturing, energy storage, aerospace, consumer electronics, and more. 6K's plasma systems are positioned to replace today's traditional manufacturing with significantly lower cost and a much cleaner, more sustainable process.
Ashley's graduate research supported aerospace materials development for NASA's multi-university Space Technology Research Institute for Ultra-Strong Composites by Computational Design (US-COMP), where she focused on nanomaterial processing, model-driven experimental design and validation, and process-structure-property characterization to design bulk nanostructured composite materials with enhanced performance and manufacturability. She enjoys working in a challenging and collaborative environment, and she is passionate about STEM outreach, mentorship, technical management, and leadership development in addition to her technical work.
Specifically, Ashley's technical expertise in materials science and engineering includes:
• Processing, experimental design, modeling, and characterization of powders, polymers, adhesives, coatings, carbon, nanomaterials, composites, and sustainable materials
• Plastics recycling, extrusion, die coating, molding, lithography, plasma processing, and chemical/physical deposition processes
• Commercial process and application development for scale-up to product manufacturing
• Micro-/nano-manufacturing, predictive patterning, and interfacial science and engineering
• Materials characterization via thermal, mechanical, chemical, rheological, electrical, optical, and structural analysis techniques
• Multifunctional composites, films, and fibers incorporating polymers, ceramics, and nanomaterials
• Ultrastrong, lightweight, 2D, and high temperature materials for a wide range of industries, such as defense, aviation, aerospace and automotive, healthcare and life sciences, consumer products, renewable energy, and electronics.