Headshot by Hanna McIntosh
Headshot by Adele Han

I am currently a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Michigan associated with the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department and the Complex Systems and Michigan Institute for Data Science programs. I am a member of the Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship program. My research interest is in using digital evolution techniques to investigate scientific questions about evolution. I currently study major transitions in evolution and evolvability.

Previously, I was a doctoral student at the Michigan State University in both the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program. I worked with the Digital Evolution Lab, led by Dr. Charles Ofria, and was associated with the BEACON Center for Evolution in Action.

I grew up in Corvallis, Oregon then moved to Tacoma, Washington to attend the University of Puget Sound. In 2017, I graduated as a Coolidge Otis Chapman Honors Scholar with majors in Mathematics and Computer Science and a minor in Chemistry. My undergraduate thesis and capstone work, respectively, investigated theoretical aspects of evolvability and probed the relationship between evolvability and plasticity through computational experimentation. Dr. America Chambers served as my thesis advisor.

selfie at Grandma's
Skiing with Nathan

In my spare time, I like to take pictures. You can look at a few of them here. I particularly love the green spaces around Corvallis, which appear frequently in my photographs. As an undergraduate, I played oboe with the University of Puget Sound Wind Ensemble and tutored at the Center for Writing, Learning, and Teaching. I also wrote for the University of Puget Sound Sound Economics Blog, which you can read here.