Meet Brad Benson, Ph.D., Senior Reliability Engineer at Crown Electrokinetics

Raised on a family farm in northeast Washington state, Brad developed a love for science and nature while working outside. As a teenager, Brad would help neighboring farmers clear large rocks out of new fields – rocks that had been carried hundreds of miles by continental glaciers during the Ice Age. One of the farmers, a former miner and prospector, would give impromptu geology lessons whenever an interesting rock was discovered. Before long, Brad was on the path to becoming a scientist. His interest in geology would later expand into engineering, and he spent more than 20 years as technology development engineer with Hewlett Packard in Corvallis, Oregon. At HP, Brad helped to advance a range of innovative technologies, including advanced displays, flexible electronics, 3D printing and electrokinetic inks. In 2020, he joined Crown’s engineering labs in Corvallis to continue working on applications for electrokinetic technology, which captured his imagination when it was first developed at HP.

When did you first decide you wanted to be an engineer?

It’s kind of a long story. In high school, my aptitude tests showed I had talents suited for engineering. So I went to Washington State University to study engineering, but with no real concept of what engineers did. In my second semester, I took a required course in geology and immediately changed my major. After I graduated with my degree in geology, I traveled all over Alaska and the northwest corner of the lower 48 states exploring for precious and strategic mineral deposits on federal lands. 

After lots of travel, I met my love, and we decided to stay in one place. That’s when I chose to continue with my engineering education at Washington State and make a career of it. I studied Mechanical and Materials Science and Engineering and earned my Masters and Ph.D.

The focus of my research was the chemistry and physics that governs the properties of materials, and the work that’s been done over the past two centuries to produce such a vast improvement in the materials we take advantage of today. That progress is phenomenal.

During your 23 years at Hewlett Packard, what kind of work did you do?

As a materials scientist, I worked on a wide variety of projects aimed at understanding and improving ink-jet materials sets, their compatibility, their lifetime, and their performance. I worked on adhesion and adhesives, polymer films, metals, ceramics, plastics, and elastomers in the ink environment, which is a pretty challenging environment for reliability, due to the active chemistry involved.

Over time, I gradually moved from basic science work to more design and integration engineering, working on transparent semiconductor materials and devices, flexible electronics, display technologies, seismic sensing, and 3D printing. I’m very grateful to have been able to work at such a great company with so many inventive and collaborative people.

What kind of work are you doing now at Crown?

At Crown, my role is focused on product design and reliability. What that means is, together with the rest of the team at Crown, I’m developing product concepts and designs, prototypes, performance specs and test plans, and integrating components into a robust, reliable, energy-saving product: The Crown Smart Window Insert.

The Smart Window Insert can be turned transparent or dark using a very small electrical current – a three foot by three foot insert uses about the same amount of power as the little LED light on the bottom corner of your TV that shows it’s plugged into the wall. 

Because the small current is so small, the insert can actually be powered by a small solar cell on the frame facing the window, paired with a battery built into the frame. When installed in an existing window frame, the Smart Window Insert increases the insulation of the window and allows you to control the amount of sunlight that enters the room, with no additional wire connections to the building’s electrical system.

What does sustainability mean to you?

Sustainability in my mind means that a process can continue indefinitely without causing harm. I don’t know of any process that is 100% sustainable. But processes can be rated on a scale of sustainability from low to high, and we should quickly move away from processes with obviously low sustainability. 

I think we should also acknowledge that our understanding of what is and isn’t sustainable can change. A process that increases sustainability in one area can reduce it in others, and in hidden ways. We have, and have had, economic systems in place that mask the true costs of things and pass those costs on to future generations, or less powerful current ones.

How do you feel about climate change, and how does it factor into your daily life?

I am worried about the effects of climate change and other impacts that humans are having on the natural environment. In my daily life, I have been an environmentalist, a naturalist, a green-space conservationist, and a die-hard bicycle commuter. Climate change factors into everything.

I also think about the progress we’ve made as human beings in the material sciences and how, looking back, there was a very high environmental cost for some of that progress. Climate change, again, is a prime example. But I also have a Star Trek-ian confidence that humans will deal with these problems and eventually become better, so that technological progress doesn’t harm the environment that ultimately sustains our species.

What do you consider to be one of your biggest professional assets?

I have a positive outlook, confidence that problems can be solved, confidence I can learn what I need to know. Those are the qualities that have really served me well. Even when things look very bad, I believe in myself and in those around me, and I know we’ll get through it and figure it out.

What made you decide to join Crown?

I guess you could say I was very familiar with Crown before it even was Crown. Back at HP, when I was working on electrokinetic films and inks, I knew there were places for this technology in the world and that we could productize it.

After the team at Crown acquired the rights to commercialize electrokinetic technology, I followed their work for years and I was always impressed at the progress they had made. So when I retired early from HP, it was kind of a no-brainer: If I was going to go back to work, Crown’s where I would go. It felt very natural to rejoin the team and continue where I left off.