Founders

Executive Director and Founder

M Pang is an engineer and entrepreneur based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Their extensive background in manufacturing and engineering includes helming Entropic Engineering, a values-driven boutique engineering firm whose past work has advanced the state of the art in robotics, medical devices, industrial systems, consumer electronics, composite materials, optoelectronics, automated manufacturing, and nano-fabrication.

M grew up in Malaysia, surviving Tuberculosis, living through the effects of SARS on schools, and observing firsthand the impact of frequent intensive wildfire smoke from nearby Indonesia. Masking was a critical part of their childhood. In their freshman year at the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering, M experienced their first epidemic stateside as H1N1 swept the dorms. Their life has been studded with the juxtaposed experiences of better access to healthcare and research resources in high income countries and better mitigation solution adoption and air quality awareness in lower and lower middle income countries.

M’s experience with non-profits began in college and has informed their career. The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic was galvanizing for M; their life experiences and institutional resources empowered them to address these discrepancies, sending gowns and masks to Southeast Asian low income and lower middle income countries before transmission had even reached the United States, then founding and running a mask sourcing, testing, and distribution non-profit before assembling the team at OpenAeros. For M, the fight for clean air and equitable resource distribution is personal.

Founder and Board Member

Aaron Collins is a mechanical engineer with a background in aerosol science whose work spans a wide cross-section of engineering disciplines. With a focus on nano and microscale phenomena, he has ushered in innovation in the fields of aerosol instrumentation, additive manufacturing, micro scale assembly and micro solder interconnects. 

Aaron leads the team at OpenAeros and holds over ten U.S. Patents and has published multiple scholarly articles. As the MaskNerd™ on social media platforms, he has become a well-recognized public health advocate for the use of high filtration masks to help battle COVID. This work has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, and The Guardian. He has appeared on CNN, Good Morning America, CBS Mornings, CBS News, NPR, MPR, and BBC Radio.

Aaron is driven by a strong belief that engineering and science should be used for the greater good of the world, and that these pursuits should not be constrained only to economically powerful nations. He is especially motivated to democratize understanding of key technologies within the aerosol science domain to create ethical and sustainable ecosystems where profit is not the only metric of success. His work is guided by the belief that ensuring open and equitable access to and understanding of key technologies empowers people around the world to help tackle the challenges within their own communities. He is a pioneer for the clean air revolution, driven by the core belief that all people deserve to breathe clean air.

Board President

Rachel is a multi-disciplined engineer and entrepreneur with extensive experience in electronics, mechanics, and optics and expertise in embedded hardware solutions and software development. She has a passion for accessible design; bringing technology to underserved and unserved communities drives her work and she is fascinated by the application of light in combating airborne disease and poor air quality. She is presently involved in the development and deployment of projects including medical devices, air cleaning and characterization, emergency rescue equipment, and robotics.