Meet Our Science Team

Joel leads the worldwide instrumentation sales and marketing team, bringing a twenty year background in metrology, commercial leadership, and team building to Picarro. He loves working with his customers, and seeing the amazing science they are able to discover with Picarro instrumentation. Joel's experience includes over a decade in sales and management at Danaher/Fortive (through Tektronix subsidiary). He has a strong technical background, and before his commercial roles he worked as an analog/RF design engineer.  When not working, he enjoys running and hiking, and is always looking for new running routes when he’s traveling. Joel earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and his MBA in Organizational Leadership from Towson University.

A love for the outdoors and a concern about climate change brought Jonathan to climate science in the early 2000s. He studied anthropology and earth science at Columbia before focusing on biogeochemistry at Scripps Institution of Oceanography for his dissertation. His expertise lies in airborne GHG measurements and the carbon cycle, including the measurement of atmospheric oxygen as a constraint on oceanic processes. Jonathan splits his work time between his home in Lafayette, CO; headquarters in Santa Clara, CA; and remote installs, where he supports and trains new customers. Ask Jonathan about birds. He knows a thing or two. 

Thomas Gottschalk is no stranger to the Science community serving as Sales Director overseeing the Asia Pacific region. He spent over 2 decades in the scientific instruments industry in various sales as well as marketing roles at Picarro as well as Agilent and Varian. He enjoys traveling to new places and exploring them wearing his running shoes.

Juan Carlos is an Application Scientist, based in Silicon Valley and serving the Americas region. His experience includes using laser ablation techniques, focusing on LIBS and LA-ICP-MS, to solve analytical problems for both R&D and commercial industries. As a geologist, he has also used LA-ICP-MS methods, concentrating on U-Pb geochronology, to recreate paleogeographic and tectonic settings of Earth's vast history. When not thinking about isotopic systems or rocks, Juan Carlos can be found cheering on his favorite sports teams, playing soccer, or traveling. Juan Carlos holds a B.S. in Geology with a minor in Chemistry from the University of Florida, and a M.S. in Geology from Louisiana State University.

Siiri is Picarro’s Director of Marketing Communications and is passionate about positive customer experiences, operational excellence and collaboration. Her career in digital, visual, external as well as internal communications offers the perfect platform to balance both her creative and analytical propensities. Outside of work, Siiri enjoys leadership roles in her local community and is currently the President of the Board for the Catamount Actor’s Theatre charity organization. 

Erik is a sales specialist on the EMEA sales team, responsible for sales in several European countries, Middle East and Africa. He holds a bachelors degree in Analytical Chemistry and has a long experience in the sale of analytical instrumentation, having worked in the analytical sales field for over 20 years. We recently named him our official beer sommelier. Cheers!

Magdalena has a passion for science and technology as evidenced by over a decade of research experience focused around stable isotope analysis, primarily of greenhouse gases. A geochemist by training, Magdalena obtained a PhD from the University of Göttingen, Germany, and a PostDoc at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. Besides her strong interest in natural sciences, she has a bachelor’s degree in international economics from the University of Göttingen. In her free time Magdalena loves making music and can relax best when watching the plants grow in her organic vegetable garden.  

Sara juggles every sort of Marcom project imaginable, but her love for graphic design is what showcases her talents. When she's not creating collateral and web design elements, she can be found executing email campaigns, supporting trade shows, and managing myriad external agencies and vendors. If you ask nicely, Sara might just hook you up with some Picarro swag!

As our Marketing Specialist, Chris has a passion for CRM platforms, website management, marketing automation, and driving webinars. In the background, he's constantly grooming our company database. In the foreground, he is the Social Media face of Picarro, actively hosting the Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook accounts.

Zhiwei Lin is a senior application scientist of Picarro, based in Silicon Valley and focusing in the Asia-Pacific region. With over ten years of R&D and application experience in scientific instruments, he is well positioned to address specific research needs from customers and provide feasible solutions for various application scenarios.

With a doctorate in volcanic geochemistry from McGill University, Gregor was one of the first to deploy a Picarro analyzer on top of an active volcano; a study that improved our understanding of volcanic triggers and eruption forecasting. He brings his curiosity of the geophysical to Picarro, where he worked as an Application Scientist before assuming the role of a Product Manager. When he’s not supporting existing customers, researching new applications and developing products, you can find him on the factory floor experimenting with his favorite analyzers. In his spare time he likes to rock climb, surf, hike, play volleyball and wonder why he never became a photographer for National Geographic.  

Milos manages sales of our scientific products and services to academic and government research laboratories across the United States and Canada. Milos is an accomplished scientist with research experiences in atmospheric sciences and air quality from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and the University of Toronto. He holds a PhD in Environmental Analytical Chemistry from the University of Toronto, and HBSc in Analytical Chemistry from York University in Toronto. In his free time, Milos enjoys playing squash, hiking, and skiing. 

Monica is a teller of stories, a planner of projects, and a lover of nature. Whether she’s developing a blog, press release, ad, or multi-faceted promotional campaign, she thrives on orchestrating just the right combination of words, images, vehicles, people and platforms to deliver a story that sells. She’s thrilled to combine her passions and 20+ years of marcom experience with her work at Picarro. 

Kate is responsible for America’s Sales West (Texas to California and Western Canada). Kate holds a BA in French, German and International Business and has a 20+ year history of technical sales of which 15+ were in the semiconductor world.  Originally from England, Kate lived in France for many years and is a polyglot. When not at work, Kate is the Chapter Director for the local volunteer group Onebrick.org, rows and coaches for Los Gatos Rowing Club, and is a member of Umunhum Brewing, California’s only coop- brewery!

Tania posesses a Masters degree in Engineering. She spent the first part of her Silicon Valley career in the chip industry and then at Google before landing at a promising optical company, Picarro. As one of the first employees, she has been spearheading the scaling of all the customer interface functions including SBIR contracts administration, customer support, indirect channels and sales operations, implementing not one but two CRMs. That’s a life-time right there! In her free time Tania is an avid hiker, runner and skier, making the most of the California weather and scenery.

Ruthger was trained as molecular biologist/geneticist at the University of Groningen, Netherlands before coming to Lausanne, Switzerland at the University of Lausanne to complete a doctorate on gene/cell therapy in 2011. After his PhD he served as Senior Researcher and later CSO at a cancer stem cell start-up called Stemergie where he was responsible for the scientific program and helped the fund raising. In 2016 he started as Sales Manager and later as Sales Director at Amphasys, a company specialised in impedance flow cytometry where he made contributions to the positioning of the technology and further built the market and sales team.

Jessica is an application engineer of Picarro, based in Shanghai and responsible for applications in Greater China. Jessica graduated with a master's degree from Shanghai Normal University. After graduation, she joined Thermofisher and engaged in application and marketing related work in molecular spectroscopy department for more than 3 years. She is positioned to solve problems for clients and provide feasible applications. In her spare time, she enjoys travelling and cooking; although, sometimes she receives complaints that the food she cooks is not so delicious.

After being trained in Interdisciplinary path of Environmental Sciences, Jan followed his broad interests through a multifaceted career in marketing research, training, programming, sound in film production, and artistic education. Jan discovered his new calling a few years ago when his environmental background met his technological affinity in supporting a local Picarro dealership and its users base. Passionate about building electronic devices and performing music, he is the man who will help you connect your out of the box ideas with our instruments singingly. Jan will assist you in choosing, using, and properly maintaining your Picarro analyzers, be it in the field or laboratory. Experienced in maintaining and troubleshooting the most complicated analytical setups, he is always positive, forthcoming, and eager to help.

Xiaojing Zhang is the Sr. Sales Manager for Greater China, at Picarro, where she oversees Sales and Business Development in China.  Prior to Picarro, Xiaojing held various roles in product management & marketing, applications, business development and sales at Thermo Fisher, Agilent and Varian. Xiaojing received her M.S. in NMR/MRI from East China Normal University, Shanghai, and a B.S. in Chemistry from SooChow University, Suzhou, China. In her spare time she likes to travel internationally, taking in the sites, arts and food from around the world.