What is your academic background?

 

I studied biomedical engineering and applied math at Johns Hopkins University in undergrad and attended the Montgomery Blair Science, Mathematics, and Computer Science Magnet Program in high school.

 

What research experience did you have before grad school?

 

I did computational research in functional genomics in the lab of Rachel Karchin during my undergrad and bench research in breast cancer biomarker discovery at the National Cancer Institute in high school.

 

What is your research area and why is it exciting?

 

I develop statistical methods and software for analyzing single cell -omics data. I think software is really cool because even though I'm not able to clone myself (yet!), I can write computer programs that can be shared and used by many people across the world to execute the same series of analyses and effectively replicate my efforts. Single cell -omics data has only been recently made possible due to technological advancements. This burgeoning new field is still very much in need of better computational tools to help extract biological insights.

 

Why did you choose BIG?

 

BIG has something for everyone. Harvard in general provided me access to the most diverse range of labs to explore during my rotation and further through collaborations. Because of the large scientific and research hub in Boston, I am able to easily collaborate with labs at the Dana-Farber, Brigham, MGH, Broad, etc.

 

How do you like living in Boston?

 

I don't like to drive so I prefer small cities like Boston. Most things are accessible by public transit or are highly walkable. There's always something to do!

 

What do you do when you are not working?

 

I enjoy teaching at The Innovation Institute in Newton and doing STEM outreach via my non-profit organization cuSTEMized. I also like to take photos and blog about art and coding.