Mike graduated from Perry Hall High School (Baltimore County) in the Class of 2005, and joined UMBC that Fall on a Baltimore County Chamber of Commerce Full Scholarship. He majored in Chemical Engineering (GPA: 3.75) and graduated from the Honors College in 2009. During his time at UMBC he participated in a variety of activities, including: living on the Honors College Floor for two years, creating the "Biodiesel Project" (a club that made biodiesel at a local farm using waste vegetable oil and did some related research on campus), singing in the Gospel Choir, organizing a Bone Marrow Registration Drive (+475 sign ups, he later donated bone marrow in 2020), performing research/work on campus in the labs of several faculty (Dr. Daniele Fabris, Dr. Brian Reed, Dr. Upal Ghosh, and Dr. Mariajosé Castellanos), presenting at URCAD, volunteering at St. Agnes clinics, and having a fantastic experience overall.
After graduation from UMBC, Mike biked across the United States with two other UMBC alumni and a then current UMBC student, to raise money for safe water. During his gap year, he worked as a research associate at UMB Shared Services Facility.
In Fall 2010, he attended Lehigh University for graduate school, where he earned his master’s and doctorate in environmental engineering. He earned a Fulbright Scholarship while at Lehigh and lived/researched in India from 2012-2014. While in India, he co-founded Drinkwell in 2013 with two other co-founders. Drinkwell is a water solutions company based in India and Bangladesh to solve the arsenic and fluoride crisis that was related to his PhD research on innovative ion exchange nanomaterials. Today, they serve up to 300,000 users per month across the Indian subcontinent. Mike finished his PhD in 2017 from Lehigh University and continued working with Drinkwell - overall he lived in India, Bangladesh, and his suitcase for three years.
Since 2018, he has been primarily based in Brooklyn, NY doing consulting work. Today, he works for Revel and supports their rapid expansion after their recent $126M Series B investment round. Revel's mission is to accelerate EV adoption in cities by providing the infrastructure and services that make it easy to go electric.
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mikegerman
Drinkwell: https://drinkwell.com/
Google Scholar: Profile Link
Image credits:
Headshot: Mike German
This list of UMBC Alumni employers should not be construed as sponsorship, affiliation, or approval by the trademark owner.