EMA Consultants
EMA® prides ourselves in our employee’s talents and determination for success. Our consultants have the experience and training necessary to help you with all your software, consulting, and measurement needs.
Below you will find a sample of EMA®’s Consultants.
We look forward to supporting your future programs!
Timothy McDonald, PhD President and Co-Owner
Tim McDonald is President and Co-Owner at Electro Magnetic Applications, Inc. (EMA®). EMA® is a leading developer of technologies for engineering simulation. EMA®’s engineering specialty is in applied electromagnetics. In this domain, EMA® provides software and services to promote the design, certification, and performance of our customers’ products. Tim currently serves as product manager for Ansys EMC Plus (formerly EMA3D® Cable). He supports Ansys EMC Plus users around the world from multiple industries.
Tim holds a PhD in Applied Physics and Applied Math from Columbia University in the City of New York.
Tim previously led consulting engagements for NASA and DoD major primes pertaining to specialty engineering of critical systems, development of novel solutions to electromagnetic compatibility problems, and in the execution of major programs that require verification to electromagnetic environmental effects.
Cody Weber, Principal Scientist II and Co-Owner
Cody Weber is a Principal Scientist II and Co-Owner at Electro Magnetic Applications, Inc. (EMA®) where he leads an E3 consulting and complex modeling team. The consulting team provides E3 certification support while the modeling team uses computational electromagnetics (CEM) to assess platform level aircraft EME interaction for threat evaluation or to set compliance levels. His team has developed complex models for civilian, space, military, and specialty engineering programs around the world simulating aircraft interaction, lightning, HIRF, EMP, and EMI environments.
Cody has used the consulting experience on aircraft certification programs along with his understanding of regulation guidance to enhance the workflow and adapt Ansys EMC Plus (formerly EMA3D® Cable) to solve real world aircraft problems. His team has developed modeling techniques to efficiently and accurately identify important aircraft EM features, including complex cable systems or structural seams, and capture these features in high fidelity FDTD models.
The quality of these techniques and models have been validated for aircraft of metallic and composite structures as well as other unique design applications. Several of these validation efforts have been presented at the International Conference on Lightning and Static Electricity (ICOLSE) that are available to share upon request.
Matt Miller, Principal RF Engineer II and Co-Owner
Matt Miller is a Principal RF Engineer II and Co-Owner at Electro Magnetic Applications, Inc. (EMA®) where he leads a group providing analysis services for RF interference, installed antenna performance, and radar signature prediction. He has over 20 years of experience in electromagnetics, business development, marketing, and sales.
Matt worked for the Boeing Company from 1998-2001 as an Electromagnetic Effects (EME) engineer supporting various defense and space programs providing analysis in the areas of antenna-to-antenna coupling, electro-static discharge (ESD), lightning effects, receiver intermodulation product generation, and shielding effectiveness. From 2001-2005, he worked for SAIC-DEMACO in Champaign, IL as a Research Scientist performing code development and analysis for various types of electromagnetic phenomena.
In 2005, Matt co-founded Delcross Technologies, LLC where he served as the President. Delcross developed commercial simulation tools for cosite interference, installed antenna performance, and radar signature prediction.
Greg Rigden, Technical Fellow
Greg Rigden is a Technical Fellow at Electro Magnetic Applications, Inc. (EMA®) where he has been involved in various endeavors involving numerical investigations, experimental/laboratory work, and the development of commercially available software products.
Numerical investigations pertain to the study of electromagnetic effects involving computer simulations of EM hazards (e.g., ESD, p-static, EMI/EMC, HIRF, lightning, NEMP, HPM) and the associated interaction with such complex structures as rockets, aircraft, shelters, ground vehicles, ships, antennas, equipment racks, equipment boxes, LRM’s, multilayered circuit boards, microchips, and individual electronic components.
Greg has developed numerous numerical techniques and approaches. Many of these techniques have been combined into the user friendly commercially available software products called Ansys EMC Plus (formerly EMA3D® Cable) and MHARNESS®. Greg is the principal developer of these software products. He has also developed numerous front end GUI tools to aid in preprocessing and problem definition
Bryon Neufeld, PhD Associate Technical Fellow
Bryon Neufeld is an Associate Technical Fellow at Electro Magnetic Applications, Inc. (EMA®). During his time at EMA®, Bryon has worked on a wide variety of electromagnetic effects projects, including lightning indirect effects, lightning direct effects, HIRF, and space charging. Bryon has developed and implemented computational software algorithms for space charging and mesh generation and has a significant role in the back-end development for Ansys Charge Plus (formerly EMA3D® Charge).
Bryon earned a PhD in theoretical nuclear and plasma physics from Duke University in 2009. While at Duke he published multiple articles in the Physical Review on dense plasma systems and received a Viewpoint recognizing him for excellent research by the American Physical Society. After graduating from Duke, Bryon worked in the Theory Division at Los Alamos National laboratory, where he was awarded a Director’s Funded Postdoctoral Fellowship. At Los Alamos, he continued to work and publish across a wide array of projects related to hot plasmas and electromagnetic systems. In addition to his technical degrees, Bryon has an MBA from Cornell University, where he graduated in the top 10% of his class.
Bryon has developed computational tools to bridge near-field, table-top measurement data into a format compatible with EMA3D®’s numerical simulation, which can in turn be used to extract the far-field EM emission pattern. He also developed and executed simulation strategies to help determine the space charging risks for NASA’s Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle’s F-1 and Em-1 missions.
Justin McKennon, Principal Scientist II
Justin McKennon is a Principal Scientist II at Electro Magnetic Applications, Inc. (EMA®) and an industry recognized leader in electromagnetic effects and space radiation. Justin has an extensive test background, having previously served as Chief Engineer at NTS Lightning Technologies prior to joining EMA.
Justin obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts. He holds a Full Authority FAA DER license in all HIRF, lightning, and EMI/EMC disciplines and has played critical roles in certification efforts on dozens of commercial and military programs. He also helped lead the establishment of EMA’s Space Environment and Radiation Effects (SERE) facility.
Justin has significant expertise related to lightning effects on aircraft, wind turbines, and structures. He also specializes in the test and measurement of electromagnetic effects, EMP, radiated effects, and related areas.
Jennifer Kitaygorsky, PhD Principal Scientist I
Jennifer Kitaygorsky is a Principal Scientist I at Electro Magnetic Applications, Inc. (EMA®) where she specializes in electromagnetic environmental effects, lightning, HIRF, and EMI/EMC analysis. She also uses her extensive experimental skills for validation and verification of Ansys EMC Plus (formerly EMA3D® Cable) and MHARNESS®, EMA®’s computational electromagnetics codes.
Jennifer received a B.S. in physics from the University of Colorado at Denver in 2001, and a PhD from the University of Rochester Electrical Engineering Department in 2008. As an undergraduate, she was a recipient of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Professional Research Experience Program (PREP) Fellowship. It was followed by a fellowship from the Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) Junior Scientist program when Jennifer was attending the University of Rochester.
Jennifer has consulted for major civilian and military aerospace prime integrators. She has developed full-wave computational electromagnetic (CEM) simulation, converted CAD drawings to sophisticated numerical models, and performed measurements of RF shielding and EM properties of novel and mission-critical materials.
Vittorio Picco, PhD Senior Scientist
Vittorio Picco is a Senior Scientist at Electro Magnetic Applications, Inc. (EMA®) where he works on modeling electromagnetic effects for aerospace applications including lightning, space charging, precipitation static effects, EMI/EMC, antenna modeling and co-siting, and others.
Vittorio received his PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2014, where his research focused on electromagnetic imaging for the detection of underground tunnels, through-wall imaging, and other inverse-scattering problems.
Vittorio is involved in the preparation and execution of laboratory testing. Before joining EMA®, he worked for Schlumberger as a Tool Physicist where he modeled, designed, tested, and supported the manufacturing and field operations of electromagnetic logging-while-drilling tools used for well placement and reservoir mapping.
Gregory Wilson, PhD Senior Scientist
Gregory Wilson is a Senior Scientist at Electro Magnetic Applications, Inc. (EMA®) where he specializes in space environment interactions with materials and spacecraft as well as electromagnetic effects of lightning and other high voltage phenomenon. He has worked on numerous projects contracted by NASA, SpaceX, AFRL, and other space focused organizations.
Gregory received his Masters in Physics at Montana State University and his PhD at Utah State University with a focus on energetic electron interactions with multilayer materials.
Gregory has published dozens of articles focusing on electron ranges in materials, secondary electron yield, surface voltage measurements, and other space based material characterization topics. He has recently worked on high fidelity electromagnetic simulations to understand the coupled interactions of surface and internal spacecraft charging. He is currently participating in the design and construction of EMA®‘s SERE facility as well as the development of Ansys Charge Plus (formerly EMA3D® Charge).
Kevin-Druis Merenda , PhD Senior Scientist
Kevin-Druis Merenda is a Senior Scientist at Electro Magnetic Applications, Inc. (EMA®) and the software product manager of Ansys Charge Plus (formerly EMA3D® Charge) .
Kevin received his Masters in Physics at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland and his PhD in Physics at the Colorado School of Mines.
Kevin joined EMA in 2020 to apply his expertise in computational physics, atmospheric electricity physics, and elementary particle physics to impactful industry projects. As it turns out, his technical proficiency and his communications skills were ideal for the role of product. Since starting at EMA, Kevin has developed mastery in the fields of spacecraft charging, radiation hardening, electrostatic discharge, and magnetohydrodynamics. Kevin has given multiple talks on these topics and on the current and future capabilities of Ansys Charge Plus in the space and defense, electronics, semiconductor, electrical equipment, electric power, and automotive industries.
Prasanna Padmanabhan, Senior RF Engineer
Prasanna Padmanabhan is a Senior RF Engineer at Electro Magnetic Applications, Inc. (EMA®) where he specializes in installed antenna and cosite interference analysis. He collaborates with R&D and product management to drive development and enhance simulation capabilities of EMA’s products. He worked at Delcross Technologies and ANSYS from 2013-2022 where he helped aerospace, defense and commercial customers in successfully bringing their products to market by cutting down design time and reducing costs using simulation. He was a subject matter expert to automotive OEMs to implement radar environment workflows to validate their design and perception models.
