Discover how Evody blends creativity and problem-solving to drive metallurgical innovation at Brimstone.
Evody Tshijik Karumb, Senior Metallurgical Research Engineer, joined Brimstone in 2019 after earning her PhD in Metallurgical & Materials Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. Since then, she’s played a central role in establishing and advancing Brimstone’s metallurgical progress, with responsibilities spanning experimental design and execution, beneficiation processes, and health and safety management. And while her role means she works across many different teams, one thing remains the same: collaboration comes first. “Interactions are always great,” she said of Brimstone’s culture. “Everyone is working together to achieve the same goal.” Read more about Evody’s career path, her approach to problem-solving, and how she nurtures creativity outside of work below.
Where are you from? I am originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and I came to the U.S. in 2009. I moved to California from Colorado about about four years ago. I moved here to join Brimstone back in 2019.
Tell us about your day-to-day responsibilities. My role today has changed quite a bit since I first joined Brimstone. I’m a polyvalent person—I work on many things at once that support different goals. For instance, I design experiments: I manage the experimental setups, conception, buildups, and then I run the experiments.On other occasions I lend these skills to other project I do not own to provide support. I do that for the process exploration team. I do beneficiation and look at the materials, which we produce and hand off to the leaching team. On top of that, I also do work with vendors and companies that can process our materials for our plant. And finally, I spend some of my time helping with our safety protocols.
Why did you decide to join Brimstone? At the time, I was looking for a job in California, and this was during the pandemic. I was looking into lots of companies, and when the opportunity at Brimstone knocked at my door, I was excited to accept it. But what really convinced me was talking to Cody. I’m a trained engineer, and metallurgy has always been my focus. I like how Brimstone is focused on finding the most practical solution to hard problems, one that is cost-effective, efficient, and still reduces emissions. I believed in that mission.
What’s your favorite job about working here? Honestly, the people. I’ve worked with people on so many different teams at Brimstone, and the interactions are always great—everyone is working together to achieve the same goal. As a whole, Brimstone is also a very independent and flexible work environment, and people are able to design their day based on what they need to do. I really appreciate how we have been able to maintain that as we’ve grown.
What are some of the biggest challenges you encounter in your work, and how can you push through them? We are trying to solve really hard problems, and they’re very complex. So we’ll have an idea, and then it can be a very multi-step process in order to get the results. The way I approach this is by breaking them into chunks—basically asking, “What do I need?” “How can I break down these steps?” Sometimes you don’t have enough information to fill in the blanks, so you need to get that information first. At the end of the day, it’s about overcoming these challenges to provide the results we need to move our work forward.
What are a few words that describe your work at Brimstone? Creativity. Deep dive. Go-getters. All of those terms describe the work, and the people, at Brimstone.
What is your favorite thing to do outside of work? Recently I have picked up gardening, which has been really nice. I like going for walks, checking out restaurants, and just relaxing. I also started a TikTok channel for my cooking, which I do with my sister. That’s been fun.
