I provide technical support on plastics materials and processing for Edwards Lifesciences. I am leading a Medical Plastics Characterization Center to support the medical device manufacturing operation and the new-product-development group. My main objective is to correlate the relationship between material, processing, and end-product performance of plastic medical devices using thermal, spectroscopic, rheological, physical, optical, and mechanical analysis. I have been involved in projects which allowed me to work in different medical devices applications using thermoplastics, adhesives, elastomers, and composites materials. In addition, I have supported the extrusion, injection molding, compression molding, casting, filament winding, balloon molding, 3D-printing, plastic welding, product assembly, heparin coating, and sterilization operations. My team have successfully helped to solve multiple challenges on material obsolescence, reverse engineering of legacy products, and process optimization. Currently, I am promoting rapid prototyping capabilities for medical tooling using on additive manufacturing in our plant in Añasco, Puerto Rico.
From 2004-14, I worked in experimental, modeling, and simulation of advanced material technologies. During this time I worked with Dr. Donald G. Baird and Dr. Peter Wapperom from Virginia Tech, Dr. Charles Tucker from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Dr. Vlastimil Kunc from the Manufacturing Development Facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratories. On Spring 2012, I had the honor to teach at the Chemical Engineering Department in Virginia Tech.
I have 4.5 years of academic experience as lecturer and an industrial consultant in Medical device, Pharmaceutical, Biotechnological, and Electronic industries. I am member of the Society of Plastics engineers where I have volunteered as Councilor for the Caribbean Section, Chair the Next Generation Advisory Board, and Co-chair of Plastics Educators.