Curriculum VitaeKevin Braza
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Kevin Braza

California  ·  kevindoeschemistry@gmail.com  ·  kevindoeschemistry.com  ·  linkedin.com/in/kevinbraza

Education

Ph.D. Chemical EngineeringUniversity of California, Irvine
  • Computational modeling of materials, with emphasis on dental materials.
MBA, Software Engineering & Business AnalyticsValar Institute / Quantic School of Business & Technology
  • Capital budgeting, pricing strategy, regression analysis, A/B testing, forecasting.
  • Full-stack development, system design, product strategy.
Teaching Credential in MathematicsLoyola Marymount University
  • Single-subject, secondary mathematics (grades 6–12). CAST Cohort LA 36, Urban Education and Leadership.
  • Formative Certified Educator. IB Mathematics Category 2. AP Computer Science A.
Certificate in Corporate Workforce DevelopmentHarvard Business School
  • Completed while at Amgen. Workforce strategy, organizational development, talent management.
  • GMP/GDP/medical device regulations, chemical hygiene for laboratories, hazardous waste, good documentation practices.
Bachelor of Science in ChemistryUniversity of California, Santa Barbara
  • Physical, analytical, organic, inorganic (with lab), biochemistry, quantum chemistry, spectroscopy.
  • Electrochemistry, physical organic chemistry, computational chemistry/biochemistry.
Summer Intensive Program, ChemistryStanford University

Professional and Academic Appointments

CBRN AI Safety & Misuse Prevention ScientistReinforce Labs, Remote
  • Evaluate frontier AI models for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear risk — assessing whether models can provide meaningful uplift for weapons-relevant knowledge.
  • Develop evaluation methodologies and red-teaming protocols for scientific misuse prevention across large language models.
Senior STEM Specialist ReviewerHandshake AI, Remote
  • Serve as final-stage reviewer for 24,000 chemistry prompts used in LLM training — spanning molecular dynamics, electroanalytical methods, protein aggregation, quantum mechanics, and spectroscopic characterization (NMR, MS).
  • Audit prompt-response pairs for conceptual accuracy, flawed reasoning chains, and deviation from current literature. Each prompt must be solvable de novo from first principles.
  • Collaborate with PhD research fellows to architect high-difficulty reasoning questions that stress-test model understanding of graduate-level chemistry.
AI Tutor, Human Data TeamxAI, Remote
  • Reviewed 140,000+ multimodal prompts (text, image, video) for harmful content generation — built detection patterns for CSAM, PII leakage, and adversarial edge cases.
  • Tuned model interpretation of physical scene dynamics — camera geometry, motion types, spatial reasoning — improving object recognition and situational awareness across visual inputs.
  • Led audio model development for Grok Voice & Companions: parameterized tone, cadence, timbre, and emotional valence with a global team of voice actors. Validated multilingual transcription accuracy.
  • Authored domain-specific chemistry evaluations that contributed to Grok's performance on Humanity's Last Exam.
  • Ran controlled A/B experiments with Likert-scale instrumentation across voice model variants to optimize emotional naturalness.
AI Trainer, Subject Matter ExpertOpenAI, Remote
  • Wrote PhD-level prompts targeting failure modes in GPT-o1 ("Strawberry") — probing logical consistency, domain accuracy, and chain-of-thought coherence.
  • Evaluated internal reasoning traces for correctness, hidden bias, and pedagogical clarity. Flagged systematic failure patterns across STEM domains.
  • Designed scoring rubrics adopted across the evaluation pipeline — measurably improved model consistency on the GPQA benchmark.
Faculty, Mathematics & Computer ScienceVillanova Preparatory School, Ojai, CA — Private Boarding School
  • Designed and taught AP/IB-aligned statistics, calculus, CAD, and Java programming across grades 6–12 (400+ students). Built original problem sets, assessments, and instructional materials for a private boarding school serving international families.
  • Prepared students for USNCO, IChO, IMO, and Science Olympiad competitions. Mentored individual science fair projects from hypothesis design through regional presentation.
  • Directed the school robotics program — restructured operations using Lean/5S methodology. Mentored students in Berklee College of Music Game Music Jam.
  • Coached SAT Math and AP exam preparation. Developed custom diagnostic assessments to identify gaps and accelerate score improvement.
  • Ran makerspace operations end-to-end: procurement, grant writing, fundraising, and regulatory compliance.
Manufacturing Process TechnicianAmgen, Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA
  • Operated GMP oral solid dosage equipment — milling, blending, coating, roller compaction (Gerteis), and tablet pressing (Korsch) — for oncology and pediatrics R&D campaigns.
  • Authored 5+ SOPs that formalized two decades of tacit operator knowledge into version-controlled documents meeting GxP regulatory standards.
  • Maintained batch records, logbooks, and chain-of-custody documentation through FDA and internal audit cycles.
Founding Sr. Tutor & Community Watch ManagerSchoolhouse.world, Remote
  • Delivered 250+ sessions in higher math, thermodynamics, and chemistry — ranked #1 tutor on the platform across two academic terms, in partnership with Khan Academy.
  • Designed a multi-tier tutor certification system adopted by UChicago, Caltech, and MIT admissions. Trained and onboarded 200+ peer tutors.
  • Built the platform's first trust and safety framework — balanced FERPA, COPPA, and CIPA requirements with minimal data collection. Reduced sign-up attrition by 41%.
  • Stood up KPI dashboards tracking user growth, session quality, and stakeholder satisfaction to guide product and policy decisions.
Outreach Program Lead & Education ResearcherSciTrek, UC Santa Barbara, Goleta, CA
  • Ran pre/post assessments with 90+ secondary students — measured a 25–30% gain in scientific process understanding, validating curriculum effectiveness.
  • Designed and delivered NGSS-aligned modules in chemistry and biology for 200+ students per year.
  • Grew program participation 40% through an ASBMB partnership — work contributed to subsequent $3M DoD and $1M congressional awards.
  • Directed a rotating cohort of 15–20 undergraduate volunteers in scientific mentorship and experimental design instruction.
Content Writer & App Design TesterSocratic (acquired by Google), Remote
  • Joined at the $7.5M seed round (Shasta, Spark Capital, Omidyar). Contributed to growth from pilot to 500K+ MAU before Google acquisition.
  • Wrote hundreds of STEM and humanities explanations. Standardized LaTeX formatting and built editorial guidelines that survived the platform migration.
  • Beta-tested camera-based math parsing, chat, and photo recognition during the 2015 Stanford pilot — feedback directly informed v1 product decisions.
  • Expanded subject coverage from 12 to 50+ areas. Designed Firebase-based tooling and led contributor onboarding through the Google transition.

Awards and Honors

Research Activities

CBRN Risk Evaluation in Frontier AIReinforce Labs
  • Evaluating large language models for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear misuse potential. Building taxonomies of threat-relevant knowledge, designing adversarial prompting strategies, and assessing model behavior at the capability boundary. Includes developing rubrics and evaluation infrastructure used across multiple frontier model assessments.
Scientific Model EvaluationOpenAI · xAI · Handshake AI
  • Designing PhD-level prompts and benchmarks that expose failure modes in scientific reasoning — across chemistry, biology, and materials science. Work spans chain-of-thought evaluation, STEM-domain rubric development, and identifying where models produce confident but wrong answers under technical questioning.
PhD Research Directions (Fall 2026, UC Irvine)
  • Computational Design of Biomaterials. Using AI and simulation to generate implants, scaffolds, and prosthetics that are optimized for individual patient anatomy.
  • Simulation of Biological Systems. Building predictive models of how materials behave after implantation: healing dynamics, osseointegration, soft-tissue remodeling, and long-term structural stability.
  • Surgical Translation & Systems Integration. Connecting computational design and simulation outputs to the clinical environment — preoperative planning, surgical guidance, and outcome tracking.

Publications in Refereed Journals

PhD begins Fall 2026 at UC Irvine. Publications forthcoming.

Teaching Activities

Professional Activities

Technical Proficiencies

AI Safety:CBRN risk evaluation, red-teaming, adversarial testing, model evaluation, safety benchmarkingScientific:Computational materials, electrochemistry, spectroscopy (NMR, MS), quantum chemistry, nanofluidicsEngineering:Full-stack development, system design, evaluation pipeline design, GMP/GxP complianceEducation:Curriculum design, competition preparation, assessment design, ed-tech