I am currently involved in the Department of Biology under Professor Chris Bystroff, concentrating in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. My work involves improvement on the protein design project, taking a current protein and modifying it to bind a target and to emit a distinguishable signal, such as fluorescence, once it is bound. This project involves both computational work, in computing the best possible protein conformation given the target, and experimental wet work, in actually taking the results of the computation, synthesizing the suggested results, observing if the model works, and refining the procedure as necessary, both computationally and experimentally.

I am originally from Nashville, Tennessee, and chose to come to RPI because of its strong emphasis on science and the challenging environment it provides to students. I am a double major in Bioinformatics and Computer Science currently at the undergraduate level, planning to obtain a Ph.D. in Biology through this program.

Outside of school and research, I am an active member of the RPI Players, having worked in some auxiliary on almost every main stage show for the past two years, from acting to technical work and producing. I have also worked as a tutor for the Advising and Learning Assistance Center, as a Teaching Assistant, and frequently as a peer tutor to my friends and fellow students.

My interest in the Accelerated B.S./Ph.D. Program is the desire to learn more about biology. Biology has always interested me, particularly workings at the smallest levels we know and the implications those workings have on greater systems. With the increased presence of technology in the academic community, having a strong technical/programming background makes numerous possible theoretical computations feasible, particularly for explaining or analyzing systems that are otherwise unobservable by traditional means, augmenting the tools available to molecular biologists. A passion for biology and an aptitude for computer science have led me down this trail, where an unlikely intersection has produced a fantastic avenue for research.