Jonah Whitfield

Jonah keeps Kestrel, the lab's dilution refrigerator, alive. He designed the vibration isolation, the wiring loom, and the maintenance schedule that lets the science group take measurements at ten millikelvin without treating the machine like a temperamental artifact.

He grew up in Detroit, learned machining from his grandfather, and spent a decade building cryogenic systems for astronomy before joining Ruqi. His rule for any new instrument: it must be serviceable by two tired people at two in the morning.

He works closely with Mei-Lin on control hardware and with Priya on field-deployable sensors. He also maintains the lab's shared machine shop and runs the safety program, which is why the shop has both a proper sign-out sheet and a very good first-aid kit.