Creative expression through STEM projects is extremely important to me. Science and engineering are HOW we as a species survive but the humanities are WHY we exist. Scientific achievement and artistic beauty are meaningless, however, without compassion and empathy. For these reasons, I strike a balance and try to advance science, art, and kindness every single day.
I'm currently the head of AI research and ML engineering at 1910 Genetics leading a team of scientists and engineers to develop cutting edge AI-driven therapeutic designs. We are training a variety of generative and predictive models that are tailor-made to mitigate the most common pitfalls in early drug discovery in a target and modality agnostic manner!
My PhD was completed at Vanderbilt University where I studied the primate visual system. More specifically, I worked in the Kaas lab investigating pulvino-cortical circuitry using classic anatomical techniques informed by electrophysiological recordings. Outside of lab, I volunteered with various school groups and taught neuroanatomy to gifted kids in underserved communities.
In 2012, I received my Master's in Public Health (MPH) from Tufts University Medical School where my research interests included statistical analysis of nonparametric data and infectious disease epidemiology. During the writing phase of my capstone project, I volunteered with Harvard's Livingsone Lab to study the perception of symbolic numbers in monkeys by teaching them addition.
My undergraduate education (BS, Brain and Cognitive Sciences) was completed at MIT. While a member of the MIT community I taught advanced psychology courses to gifted highschool students (MIT ESP), worked as an EMT, and conducted face perception research with the Sinha Lab.
I'm probably best known for being a contestant on the first season of TBS's King of the Nerds. It was a great experience and I made many close friends! This brief television appearance exposed me to the world of cosplay which has become one of my creative outlets.
When leisure time is available I enjoy hardware hacking, hiking, and watercolor painting.