Tell us a bit about yourself.

 

I grew up in the mountains of Idaho, but went to high school in Western Mass. After college I spent five years working in finance before deciding to pursue a PhD in the BIG program - a decision I consider to be one of the best I have made.

 

What is your academic background? What research experience did you have before grad school?

 

I majored in Physics at Princeton, where I also minored in biophysics. As an undergraduate I worked in an experimental biophysics lab focused on understanding thermotaxis in C. elegans and bacteria. I wrote my undergraduate thesis on modeling viral genetic circuits in order to understand how they impact the post-infection fate decisions of the virus.

 

What is your research area and why is it exciting?

 

I worked on applying statistical learning methods to decrypt structural information embedded within related protein sequences.

 

Why did you choose BIG?

 

I chose BIG because of the vibrant culture of Harvard and the greater Boston area. There's no comparison when it comes to the concentration of talented people working within life sciences and the number of amazing PIs that you can work with as a grad student.

 

What was your favorite class and why?

 

Alkes Price's Advanced Population and Medical Genetics. I have found the knowledge to be broadly applicable, but mainly because of Alkes. His passion comes through and it's rare that someone as brilliant as him has the ability to explain complex concepts so clearly.

 

How do you like living in Boston? What do you do when you are not working?

 

I loved living in Boston. The concentration of life sciences is amazing and the small size makes it accessible. In my spare time I bike, run, ski, and do pretty much anything else I can outside.

 

Where are you now and why did you choose that work?

 

I am currently working at insitro, a company founded by Daphne Koller using high throughput data generation techniques, functional genomics, and machine learning to discover new therapeutics. insitro provided me the opportunity to apply much of what I learned in grad school towards the goal of making a meaningful impact for patients.