Malcolm Tisdale

Malcolm Tisdale is the Co-founder and Chief Engineer of Atum Works, a Y Combinator-backed nanomanufacturing startup based in Mountain View, California. He graduated from Caltech in 2024 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, where he completed his thesis on multi-material additive manufacturing and developed universal grippers under Professor Joel Burdick. Prior to founding Atum Works in 2024, Tisdale engineered robotic arms and legs for Mars Helicopters at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and AeroVironment. During his academic tenure, he co-founded Caltech Air and Outer Space, securing over $600,000 in research grants and an additional $360,000 through the NASA BIG Idea Challenge. He also led the development of electrodynamic dust-shielding hardware that won the NASA Best Product Development Award. His current focus centers on advancing gigascale 3D lithography technology for commercial nanomanufacturing and space manipulation systems.