Patrick B. Gibson

Patrick B. Gibson

R&D Engineer in San Francisco, CA, he/him

About

In my previous career, I spent over a decade working as a high-impact software engineer at both large and small companies. Some highlights include helping ship the original iPad at Apple, working with Target to build their iPhone app at Pacific Helm, and completely re-writing and modernizing the web store and customer database at Panic.

After witnessing the devastating western wildfires in 2018, I sought a change in careers to work against climate change. To that end, I recently earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (Physics minor) from Portland State University, and will start an M.S. in Materials Engineering program at the University of Southern California in the fall. I aspire to have major impacts at the intersection of technology and climate.

English is my first language and French is my second. My third, which I'm still learning, is Japanese.

Work Experience

2024 — Now
San Francisco, CA

Tech lead for reactor control systems, data systems, and material development. Pushing forward the state of the art for the next generation of ammonia synthesis.

2024 — 2024
Remote

As a research fellow, I built and collaborated on GHG impact measurement models for emerging climate tech startups. These models followed the Project FRAME methodology to provide insight to founders, investors, and all other stakeholders.

2014 — 2019
Portland, OR

I moved to Portland in 2014 to work at the award-winning and industry-acclaimed Mac and iOS app powerhouse that is Panic. As a flat company with major individual product ownership, I worked on frameworks that powered both Mac and iOS versions of Panic's popular Transmit and Coda apps. I later worked on web services, where I re-wrote and modernized the Panic web store, and helped out with other backend services.

2013 — 2014
San Francisco, CA

I was the CFO and lead developer at Pacific Helm, a short-run SF-based design agency. Together, we did some best-in-class design and engineering for Target's mobile app team, Meh.com (acquired by Amazon), Pantone, Shots (Justin Bieber-backed mobile social network), and other awesome clients.

2012 — 2013
San Francisco, CA

I worked with some extremely talented developers helping build the company behind the massively popular Javascript framework, Ember.js. Also did great client work (iPad app development) for clients such as McGraw-Hill.

2007 — 2011
Cupertino, CA

I worked on the iPhone build team and helped ship iPhone OS (now called iOS) 2.0 through 5.0. Getting to be the DRI for iPhone OS 3.2, which was the software for the original iPad, was one of the highlights of my career. I also worked on various build tools and other internal projects.

Education

2023 — Now
2019 — 2023

Mechanical Engineering (Physics Minor)

Projects

2023

For my senior year capstone project at PSU, my team created a linearly-actuating quartz tube furnace to perform pyrolysis of forest biomass for use in wildfire smoke studies. We worked with Dr. Gall and to help support his work at the PSU Healthy Building Research Lab under funding from the EPA.

Volunteering

2021 — 2022
Portland State University

I worked as a lab assistant for a few months in a nanomaterials research lab, where I helped do graphene-based device characterization and other tasks.

Speaking

2012
San Francisco, CA

I gave a demo showcasing possibilities of then-newly released CoreImage framework at the San Francisco chapter of CocoaHeads, a recurring Apple-centric programmer meetup.

2011
Vancouver, Canada

I spoke on how to effectively use collection views in iPhone apps at the Vancouver chapter of CocoaHeads, an recurring Apple-centric programmer meetup.

Certifications

Contact