Jan-David Ridder / Chemical Engineer
Engineer.Researcher.Athlete.
Physics-informed ML, model predictive control, and reaction & process engineering — built at competitive training intensity.
M.Sc. Avg Grade
B.Sc. Avg Grade
M.Sc. Thesis Grade
B.Sc. Thesis Grade
Best B.Sc degree 2023/24
Deutschlandstipendium
Interests
Hover to displace · Drag to orbit
Tethered Timeline
Abitur
Bischöfliches St. Josef-Gymnasium Bocholt
Grade 1.2. Mathematics 15/15 · Chemistry 15/15. GDCh Best Student in Chemistry 2018. 2nd place at regional Jugend Forscht with an electrochemical study on road-salt NaCl concentrations in melt water.
B.Sc. Chemical Engineering (Year 1)
Christian Brothers University · Memphis, Tennessee
Awarded a track-and-field scholarship as an 800 m runner at age 18. GPA 4.0. Developed native-level English through full immersion — a formative step out of comfort zone.
B.Sc. Chemical Engineering
TU Dortmund University
Average grade 1.5 · Thesis grade 1.0. Thesis: Finite-Element Methods (OCFE & Galerkin) for intra-pellet diffusion and heat transport in silver catalyst pellets — implemented in Python/Gekko/IPOPT. Awarded Best Degree of Academic Year 2023–24 (Wacker Chemie AG Bachelor Award). Deutschlandstipendium scholar (Evonik, 2021–2025).
Data Engineering Intern
Evonik Industries · Marl
Digital-twin heat pump simulations in Aspen Plus. Built a Python–Aspen API. Performed black-box process optimization via Bayesian optimization. Open-source contribution to the BoFire ML library (polytope sampler for design of experiments). Company-wide final presentation to process engineering staff.
M.Sc. Chemical Engineering
TU Dortmund University
Average grade 1.3 · Thesis grade 1.0. Thesis: Physics-Consistent Surrogate Models with Uncertainty Quantification for MPC. Modelled a load-flexible ethylene oxidation reactor (PDEs, CasADi). Trained physics-constrained PyTorch NNs — reduced MPC control effort by 8.5 % and solution time by 21 %. Applied conformalized quantile regression (CQR); zero violations of max-temperature constraint.
Research Assistant
Chair of Reaction Engineering & Catalysis · TU Dortmund
Macro-kinetics modeling and OCFE diffusion simulation (building on B.Sc. thesis). Bayesian optimization of flow reactor CFD simulations — published as open-source on GitHub. Built a simulation data pipeline. Kinetic parameter fitting for a Berty reactor under GC measurement uncertainty.
Co-Founder & Director
Wasp Aerodynamics GbR
Premium running accessories startup. Full-stack e-commerce built with Next.js, React, Stripe, email automation, Google Analytics — self-deployed on Vercel. Product design in Adobe Illustrator and 3D visualisations in Blender. Accountable for business accounting, supplier negotiation, and German tax declaration.
Project Gallery
Wasp Aerodynamics Shop
Co-Founder · 2024 – present
Premium running apparel startup. Implemented full-stack e-commerce: Next.js frontend, Stripe payments, email automation, database hosting, Google Analytics — entirely self-built and self-deployed on Vercel. Includes 3D product visualizations made in Blender and graphic design in Adobe Illustrator.
Physics-Constrained NNs for MPC
M.Sc. Thesis · TU Dortmund 2025
Derivation and implementation of neural networks with uncertainty quantification for model predictive control of a load-flexible packed bed reactor. Physics-constrained PyTorch architecture reduced MPC control effort by 8.5 % and solution time by 21 %. Conformalized quantile regression (CQR) achieved zero violations of the maximum-temperature constraint in this case.
Comparison of finite-element methods
B.Sc. Thesis · TU Dortmund 2023
Implemented orthogonal collocation on finite elements (OCFE) and Galerkin-method in python to solve non-linear ODE systems of 2nd order. Derived a 1D-micro-kinetic model for spherical catalyst particles using mass and enthalpy balance. Analysed impact of numerical errors, simulation duration and accuracy.
Bayesian optimization pipeline
Research Assistant · TU Dortmund 2024
Multi-objective black-box optimization of CFD simulations (ANSYS) using Bayesian optimization. Contributed active learning (new acquisition function) for design of experiments focused on pure exploration to the open-source BoFire library. Built a data pipeline communicating between the optimizer and multiple simulation instances for autonomous exploration of the multi-objective output space.
Kinetic parameter fitting & reactor modeling
Research Assistant · TU Dortmund 2024
Comparison of kinetic parameter uncertainty after fitting the reaction rate expressions vs. fitting a gradientless Berty model to noisy GC measurements. Implementated a Berty model for the ethylene oxidation with additive gaussian noise on GC measurements. Fitted the reaction rate expressions and the complete Berty model to artifial measurements with IPOPT. Comparison of parameter uncertainty.
Optimization of a Digital Twin Heat Pump
Intern · Evonik Industries 2023
Simulated a heat pump digital twin in Aspen Plus. Developed a Python–Aspen API for automated scenario runs. Applied Bayesian optimization for black-box process optimization and contributed the API to the open-source BoFire library. Results presented company-wide to process engineering staff.
CO₂-Neutral multi-functional plant for wax esters
Group Project · BASF, TU Dortmund 2022
6-week, ~50 h/week group project for BASF (10 students). Full plant design: catalyst identification, mass & energy balancing, heat integration, MATLAB reactor simulation, P&ID with control loops in Visio. Project management using Notion. Weekly presentations and status reports. Final presentation to 100 attendees and a BASF project manager on-site.
Heat pump power forecast
2025
Modeled heat loss of a private building using wall heat transfer coefficients, recirculation rate and shell surface area. Trained a support vector machine (SVM) model with a heat pump datasheet. Simulated heat and electricity demand across 25 winters to predict the electricity bill.
World energy demand
Data science project – TechLabs 2020
3-week, group project (4 students). Analysis of world energy demand: Data scraping (governmental websites, ourworldindata), cleaning (Python/pandas/numpy), visualization (Matplotlib/Plotly). Final paper and presentation.
Analysis of NaCl-concentration in melt water
2nd place JugendForscht, LK Chemistry 2018
Took melt water samples on regional roads and rivers. Determined chloride ion concentrations using potentiometry with Ag-electrodes. Critically asessed results, impact on soil and experimental procedure. Developed a research poster and presented at competiton in Marl. Won the 2nd place.
Power output monitoring of a solar panel
2020
Developed a measurement system for current, voltage and surface temperature of a solar panel using the Arduino Uno microcontroller and according sensors. Built circuit, soldered resistors and implemented controller logic (C) to monitor power output and temperature on LED display.
Skill Matrix
Programming Languages
Frameworks & Libraries
Languages
Open to opportunities
Let's build something extraordinary.
Industry R&D, process engineering, or deep-tech entrepreneurship — I bring rigorous modelling, hands-on code, and the discipline of an competitive track athlete.