Our company
Based in Fort Collins, Colorado, we are an early-phase startup focusing on applying innovative optical, electronic, and computational techniques to develop cutting-edge particle measurement equipment.
Who we are
CloudSci is made up of a talented group of people with diverse skill sets, covering expertise in aerosol science, indoor air quality, cloud microphysics, optical physics, data science, and more. All of us are passionate about finding unique technological solutions to particle measurement challenges.
Matt Freer
CEO
Matt Freer has been involved with airborne atmospheric science for more than 20 years, focusing on the hardware, software, and data processing aspects of in-situ cloud microphysics measurements. He holds an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before founding CloudSci, he was a research programmer at the University of Illinois in the McFarquhar research group, developed standards and software processing tools at the European Facility for Airborne Research (EUFAR) in Toulouse, France, led the sales, marketing, and support of cloud probes at Droplet Measurement Technologies in Boulder, Colorado, and led several SBIRs for cloud probe development at Handix Scientific in Fort Collins, Colorado
Matt Berg
Head of Optical Design
Matthew Berg’s expertise spans 20+ years of applied research in light scattering and other topics in electromagnetic theory. Much of his work focuses on developing both measurement and data-analysis methods to characterize aerosols via scattering. A notable example is his adaptation of digital holography to image freely flowing aerosol particles, revealing individual particle size and shape. Matthew received a B.Sc. in Engineering Physics from the Colorado School of Mines in 2003 and a Ph.D. in Physics from Kansas State University in 2008. His postgraduate work was supported by a National Research Council DoD fellowship at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. As a co-founder and Head of Optical Design at CloudSci, Matthew formulates novel concepts and designs for aerosol-measurement instruments to serve a wide range of practical applications.
Ben Swanson
Aerosol Scientist
Ben Swanson is a Chemist with over 10 years of experience in spectroscopy instrument development, characterization, and usage, as well as wide scale data analysis techniques related. He holds a Ph.D in Atmospheric Chemistry from the University of Denver. Outside of work, he enjoys writing music, cooking, and playing games in my spare time.
Tom Ramin
Head of Engineering
Tom is our resident Mechanical Engineer who is designing our products and mechanical hardware. His passion is engineering analysis and modeling but he also spends a lot of time in the lab making sure ‘things work’. Before devoting his work full time to CloudSci, Tom designed particle counters, optical coating vacuum systems, high end power supplies and ion sources. He started his career developing combustion engines and components in the automotive industry. He earned a BS in Nuclear& Mechanical Engineering as well as a MS and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University. In his spare time, Tom likes to spend time outdoors running trails and is probably trying to fit too many races in his schedule.
Joel Wigton
Software Engineer (ML and CV)
Joel Wigton is a machine learning and computer vision engineer with a passion for AI-driven solutions. He holds both a Master’s and Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan. With nearly two decades of experience in the tech industry, Joel has honed his skills across hardware, firmware, software, and AI. A certified TensorFlow developer, he has expertise in deep learning, computer vision, and natural language processing. When he's not debugging neural networks, you'll find him tinkering with his 3D printer or enjoying a relaxing walk with a coffee.
Our mission
To improve understanding of the planet and built environments through advanced particle measurement devices.