Jessica DeBerardinis currently works for Ultramet as a research engineer and at California State University - Los Angeles as an instructor. She has experience in materials analysis, including refractory metals, ceramics, and biological tissues, and enjoys designing material solutions for extreme and unique environments. She completed her Ph.D. at UNLV in mechanical engineering, winning Best Dissertation for her work in modeling the mechanical characteristics of plantar tissues. Her current work at Ultramet has a variety of applications in aerospace, energy, and biomedical. Jessica looks forward to a successful career in materials engineering research and hopes to use her industrial experiences to inspire other engineers and students to design unique and imaginative solutions to complex problems.