I am an early-career scientist with an interdisciplinary approach to problems concerning the origin of life on Earth. I am excited to join the Mathis-Group in Fall 2024 as a PhD student. My research interests include biosignature detection, instrument and mission design, and prebiotic chemistry.
I recently graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a bachelor’s degree in biology. In addition to my foundational biology education, I have a strong, interdisciplinary background in physics, microbiology, computer science, and genomics. My senior thesis project was titled “Modeling the population dynamics of a human Mars colony in the event of catastrophe”, where I modeled four different catastrophic event scenarios and the feasibility of moving a small proportion of the human population to Mars.
In the summer of 2023, I completed an internship at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Planetary Protection Microbiology. It was at Goddard where I found my passion for the intersection between microbiology, space exploration, and contamination engineering. My summer projects included researching genes and metabolic pathways relevant to the survival of microbes in Goddard’s cleanrooms, establishing new molecular biology capabilities for the Planetary Protection lab with the addition of a DNA sequencing instrument, and designing and executing an extraction efficiency experiment at the request of NASA Headquarters. I hope to continue my collaboration with NASA as a graduate student.
Aside from my research, I have a strong interest in science education, as well as accessibility and inclusion in STEM.
I am looking forward to exploring new opportunities with the Mathis-Group as I pursue my PhD in Complex Adaptive System Science at ASU.