for his time on Earth (bc, once again, I haven't thought about how they do in space, lol), I think he's a chemical/biochemical engineer by trade, but went back to working at a car shop when some proposal he made to optimize or innovate a system fell through and got him kicked from his (government?) job.
I'm not exactly sure what optimization/innovation he proposed, but it should probably have something to do with the sorbents used to decontaminate cabin air in spaceships!!
he's brought in against his will from the get-go; while engineering is his passion (and he definitely misses working on problems like that) he does genuinely enjoy fixing up cars. more than that, he doesn't really want to be involved in whatever space-thing is going on (even if he does know and believe whatever's happening with the Petrova Line is important+potentially dangerous). he gets dragged in anyway, but unlike Grace, who asked to stay involved with figuring out the astrophage, he has to be dragged in again when someone fucks up whatever system he helped initially install.
he's begrudgingly a part of Project Hail Mary. he doesn't want to help at all--he thinks there are better people for the job than him. smarter people, more motivated people, kinder people. he cares about the Earth being saved! but he doesn't care enough to be a part of the project himself.
and then Ilyukhina and the other back-ups break Kentucky's systems and get crushed; and despite there being other options, Gov is tired of these engineers fucking up this technology that would theoretically help them a LOT on this trip and tells Kentucky that he's getting sent up instead.
and Kentucky is livid, bro. he never even wanted to be a part of this mission. he cooperated (RELUCTANTLY) because he knew that the mission was important, but he never even wanted to do that. why does he have to go? his technology doesn't even have to be a part of the ship--it's to ensure that the passengers stay alive and won't get poisoned out in space! it's a secondary security measure at best; just get rid of it!
Gov disagrees. (i'm not talking about his character in this post BUT i think he cares a whole lot less than Stratt. he's a lot more willing to exploit the assets he has in order to accomplish his goals.) he orders that Kentucky be put into the coma early and all that.
i did a bit of thinking about how his career would help him with the astrophage problem instead of preparing for my dnd session tonight so:
I like the idea of him working with fuels or other such things. his classes would have him still working with biological things, though at a more macro level. what he'd be best at, regarding the mission, is coming up with tools and whatnot to make it easier/more efficient. i dont think he'd be a genius with the astrophage itself, though. idk ! big shrug.
either way this guy was fun to think about! i tend to think about the lab-coat version of Kentucky i've seen when imagining him, but I can't think of him as a super super sciencey guy. partial sciences!
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