JANUS Team Member Matthew Alvarado Celebrates 15 Years
07/19/2025
Research & Development Division Vice President Dr. Matthew (Matt) Alvarado is celebrating 15 years with JANUS Research Group's AER Business Unit (JANUS).
Matt started in 2010 with AER, acquired by JANUS in December 2024, as an air quality group staff scientist. Over the last 15 years, Matt has progressed from working on individual programs as a staff scientist to a manager of multiple programs, and further to a senior-level manager overseeing AER's Research & Development Division, which performs a very broad set of research projects for commercial, state, and federal sponsors. Throughout, Matt has steadfastly (and impressively) maintained his involvement as a front-line scientist, even as administrative and managerial duties took more of his time.
Matt has been instrumental in building and maintaining AER's long-term support of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality research efforts and in applying state-of-the art modeling techniques to a methane monitoring project with ExxonMobil. He has also developed and led a continuing series of studies of the potential hazards of large-scale lithium-ion battery fires as utilities look to grow energy storage capacity using these batteries.
Matt's energy and dedication to his work are legendary. For instance, during a work trip to Saudi Arabia to work with the national meteorological agency there, Matt had to book his travel last minute, enduring 20 hours of grueling travel across multiple time zones. Still, he never missed a beat on either the Saudi project or his normal duties back home, despite the challenges he faced. He enthusiastically applies this dedication and persistence to all aspects of his work.
Learning to be a collaborative manager of senior-level scientists with decades of experience in their respective fields is not for the faint of heart, but Matt is both a great communicator and an astute, organized scientist. His ability to provide sound rationale for his decisions, combined with his accessibility as a supportive manager who thinks two steps ahead, is why Matt is so successful in his current role and what makes it easy for the senior scientists he manages to readily recognize and appreciate Matt's leadership.
Matt is dedicated to finding ways forward for both people and scientific topics. It is just one of many reasons Matt has been recognized with AER's Januz Eluszkiewicz Citizen Award, which is given to long-term AER employees who demonstrate extraordinary care, achievement, and engagement across the company. He has brought that same level of care, achievement, and engagement to JANUS. As Matt continues in his current role, we foresee nothing but success, including helping to identify and execute new research topics, projects, and opportunities for JANUS for a long time to come.
When he is not busy at work, Matt enjoys spending time with his wife and two sons. A dedicated family man, Matt learned early that sometimes, mixing work and family can lead to memorable family bonding experiences. His dad was a career enlisted Marine, and both he and Matt took trigonometry and algebra mathematics at the same time. We wonder, which one got to claim Top Mathematician in their family during those days?
JANUS is proud to celebrate Matt's 15th work anniversary and we look forward to his many contributions and accomplishments to come in the years ahead.
