Co-Founder
Industrial automation, control-system software and agentic AI with real governance — built in Champaign for clients nationwide.
What we build →Champaign, Illinois
Mark Eschbach II
- Chemist
- Engineer
- Developer
- Founder
I’m multidisciplinary and cross-functional by nature — chemistry, plasma physics, software, AI, philosophy, fitness — but a builder at heart. Plasma reactors, statewide water-data platforms, governed AI at Epistemion, and the occasional sauna made from scrap wood.
What I’m doing now
Full résumé →Plasma Chemistry Research Supervisor
Designing and modeling plasma reactors for CO₂ utilization and novel synthesis routes.
Science track →Scientific Specialist
Shipped a statewide water-treatment reporting app and a 50-year research database.
See the data work →Selected work
All portfolio →
IWT-DSR — Water Treatment Reporting App
Enterprise-grade, multi-platform app that replaced paper site reports for a statewide water-treatment program — field data capture, reporting and analytics in one place. Cut site-visit reporting time by 50%.
Water-Line Database
Fifty years of historic water-treatment reports — handwritten, Word, Excel and PDF — cleaned, OCR’d and unified into one searchable research database.
Plasma Ammonia Synthesis Simulation
Simulation exploring which factors drive plasma-enhanced ammonia (NH₃) synthesis — a computational companion to hands-on reactor work.
Writing Corner
All essays →- What We Make Philosophy Christianity and the occult still quietly shape how the West imagines the future. The curtain has fallen—so what will we build?
- Hope as Our Deepest Orientation Philosophy Hope isn’t a mood or a supply we run out of. It’s the forward lean that defines us, and it shows itself in what we do.
- The House We Built Philosophy We’ve condemned the house our ancestors left us and watched it burn. The question now is what we build before sundown.
Quick answers
- Who is Mark Eschbach II?
- Mark Eschbach II is a multidisciplinary chemist, engineer and software developer based in Champaign, Illinois, and the co-founder of Epistemion LLC. Curious across chemistry, plasma physics, software, AI, philosophy and fitness, he is a builder at heart, with 10+ years turning research into working systems.
- What does Mark Eschbach II work on?
- He leads plasma-chemistry research on reactors for CO₂ utilization at the Prairie Research Institute (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), builds water-treatment data systems at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, and builds industrial automation and agentic-AI systems at Epistemion.
- What is Epistemion?
- Epistemion LLC is an engineering firm in Champaign, Illinois, founded in 2025 by Mark Eschbach II and Pete Norcross. It builds industrial and commercial automation, control-system software, dashboards, custom applications and governed agentic AI. Website — epistemion.com.
- What does Mark Eschbach II write about?
- Philosophy, meaning, hope and the forces that shape our world — essays such as “The House We Built,” “Hope as Our Deepest Orientation” and “What We Make” — plus detailed DIY build logs like a scrap-wood sauna and AC-chilled cold plunges.
- How can I contact Mark Eschbach II?
- By email (listed on his résumé page) or on LinkedIn. For automation or AI projects, contact Epistemion through epistemion.com.
Have an automation or AI problem?
Epistemion builds control systems, dashboards and agentic AI that operators trust.