Alumni of the Alt Protein Project: cultivating key skills beyond the classroom

Insights from Jeffray Behr

Jeffray Behr, previous research lead for the Stanford Alt Protein Project and early mentor to the Waterloo Alt Protein Project, attended Waterloo University in Ontario, Canada where he studied mechanical engineering. When asked about why he feels mechanical engineering is so important to the alt protein industry, he shared the following: 

“Mechanical engineering is extremely important for building and designing small-scale prototypes of custom equipment. Early-stage alternative protein startups working on the lab scale often have to make something that doesn’t exist by creating a proof of concept prototype to test if a processing technique will work. This is where mechanical engineers can contribute as they are able to design in 3D CAD and then physically build those prototypes.”

As a young engineering student, Jeffray completed five unique cooperative education programs (co-ops), a mandatory component of his university’s engineering program. These co-ops complemented his studies with practical work in the real world. 

One co-op sharpened Jeffray’s communication and teamwork skills in particular. Jeffray worked at a small nonprofit organization in a remote part of India that focused on burning pine needles and using the gas produced from the combustion to power a generator, thus producing electricity for the local area while the ash by-product was converted into charcoal briquettes to be used as an alternative cooking fuel source. He reflected on the challenges he faced working on this project and how it helped him grow personally and professionally.

“I didn’t speak Hindi. So there was a little bit of a communication barrier there. Things were constantly changing and we had very limited resources so I really had to become adaptable to that situation. I had to try my best to learn and figure things out on my own, including how to better communicate with people who don’t necessarily speak the same language [as I did]. This was a challenge that I had to overcome. I feel like I experienced a lot of growth in that co-op in particular.”

The fundamental and advanced coursework is, of course, a necessary foundation important for any technical career in alternative proteins. But when reflecting on the value of his various undergraduate experiences, Jeffray ranked his networking and co-op experiences above what he learned in the classroom – nodding to the essentiality of experiences where he utilized more than just his book knowledge.

Jeffray Behr is now a Process Engineer at New School Foods, a company focused on creating plant-based, whole-cut seafood, including salmon filets that look, cook, taste, and flake like wild salmon. In this role, Jeffray works to optimize the plant-based fish manufacturing process, design the layout of the production facility, and make preliminary models on the cost of goods sold. 

When Jeffray joined the team at New School Foods, he was employee number two and wore many different hats in the early days of getting the startup running smoothly. At first, Jeffray found himself working closely with the Food Science team and now his work has taken on slightly more of a chemical engineering focus. While Jeffray’s educational training is not in chemical engineering, his adaptability, a skill he developed through his co-op experiences, allowed him to lean deeper into the parts of his job that he found more interesting. 

“I’ve kind of moved away from the traditional mechanical engineering design work to more process engineering, which is what I enjoy more. Process engineering is about taking a larger view of the whole system and the whole production process of making the product and optimizing it. To those interested in engineering roles in this industry, depending on the style of work that you want to do and the way that you want to contribute to the alternative protein sector, I would say to choose your engineering discipline accordingly, but don’t feel that you have to stick with it forever as you can always adapt and learn new skills.”

As a Process Engineer at an alternative protein company specifically, Jeffray described his current responsibilities as falling into two key buckets of work. 

“The first bucket being equipment procurement which is kind of the process engineering side of things. Figuring out all the equipment that we need for our production process, reaching out to different vendors, seeing if they have the specific needs and requirements for our application, and then going through the whole quoting and ordering process.

Then there’s the project management side of my role which is coordinating with our contractors and consultants to build out our pilot production facility. There’s a lot of back and forth with the contractors and consultants in order to physically build out this facility. Lots of engineering drawings, deciding on the layout for the facility, and determining where things are gonna go.” 

The professional communication and problem-solving skills Jeffray acquired through multiple co-op experiences enabled him to excel in the work he does today –interfacing with various stakeholders and keeping their team on track. Once New School Foods moves towards production, Jeffray anticipates his role will change in many ways to address the company’s next stage of growth.

“I imagine my role will involve looking at process improvements and process efficiencies, and looking at our cost of goods sold and then figuring out ways that we can reduce that.”

Amidst balancing a full-time job, Jeffray carves out the time to interview guest speakers and showcase the diverse career paths across the industry on the Cultivating Careers in Alternative Proteins podcast. Through this podcast, Jeffray engages with students, researchers, scientists, entrepreneurs, investors, and consultants working in the alternative protein industry to provide advice on how anyone can cultivate a career in this revolutionary field. Jeffray’s motivation for launching this passion project stems from his desire to make a lasting impact on the world and he continues to find ways to do so at every stage in his career.