Current Position
Associate Professor, Department of Biology Member, Center for Biodiversity and Conservation Research Affiliate Faculty Member, Department of Biology Education Ph.D., Biophysics, April 2006 Dissertation: Distilling Information from Noisy Data: Examples from Microscopy Advisor: John W. Sedat; Committee: David Agard and Ron Vale Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA B.A., Natural Sciences, High Honors (External Examination Program), May 1995 Thesis: Cellular Rhythms of a Drosophila Clock Protein Major: Chemistry; minors: Biology, Physics Research Interests Current: evolution of symbiosis, synthetic ecology, experimental evolution, genomics & metabolism,
fermented food microbiology, fungal-algal associations, evolution of plant-microbe interactions, microbial and chemical ecology of polycultures, genetic basis of specialized metabolism, sloths,
biological soil crusts and terraformation, artificial life, waste valorization, advancing education and the
common good in communities of inequitable need Prior: image processing, biophotonics and microscopy, fluctuations analysis, computational chemistry,
circadian rhythms and neuroethology Honors, Fellowships, & Awards •Sabbatical Fellow, iDiv (Deutsches Zentrum für integrative Biodiversitätsforschung of Halle-Jena-Leipzig), Leipzig, Germany (2021) •CAREER Award, National Science Foundation (Aug 2019-2024) •Mike L. Edmonds New Scholar Award, College of Liberal Arts, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS (May 2019) •Visiting Scientist, Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo, Japan (Aug 2018) •LabEx TULIP Visiting Scientist, Laboratoire des Interactions Plantes-Microorganismes (LIPM), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Toulouse, France (Jul 2017) •Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Research Fund, Postdoctoral Fellowship (2007–2010) •Harvey Fellows, Mustard Seed Foundation, Predoctoral Fellowship (2001–2004) •American Heart Association, Western States Affiliates, Predoctoral Fellowship (1999–2001) •American Chemical Society award in Analytical Chemistry, Swarthmore College (1994) •Charles A. Collins Scholar, Swarthmore College (1993–1995) Experience Assistant Professor, Department of Biology University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS (Fall 2014-Spring 2020) Participant, Commercializing Science Course Harvard Business School, Boston, MA (Fall 2013) Course Director: Vicki Sato Postdoctoral Fellow & Research Associate, Andrew Murray’s Lab Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (2006-2013) Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology & FAS Center for Systems Biology Experimental Evolution of Symbiosis & Chlamydomonas Genomics Graduate Student, John Sedat’s Lab University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (2003-2006) Graduate Group in Biophysics & Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics A New Image Deconvolution Algorithm for Microscopy and Astronomy (Dissertation, part 2) Graduate Student, Alan Verkman’s Lab University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (1997-2003) Graduate Group in Biophysics & Departments of Medicine and Physiology Towards Quantitative Measurements of Macromolecular Interactions in Living Cells (Dissertation, part 1) Visiting Fellow, Sudipta Maiti’s Lab Tata Institute for Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India (Summer 2001) Laboratory for Biophotonics, Department of Chemical Sciences Hosts: Sudipta Maiti and N. Periasamy (Funding: Fogarty International Grant) Theoretical Assessment and Implementation of Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) Participant, Physiology Course Marine Biological Laboratories, Woods Hole, MA (Summer 1999) Course Directors: David Garbers (UT Southwestern) and Randall Reed (Johns Hopkins) The Physiological Basis for Cell Signaling Staff Research Associate, Andy McCammon’s Group University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA (1995-1997) Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry, Department of Pharmacology, & San Diego Supercomputer Center Computational Studies of Biomolecular Properties Honors Chemistry Thesis Student, Kathy Siwicki’s Lab Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA (1994-1995) Laboratory of Neurobiology (Sponsor: Judy Voet, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry) Professional Societies • American Society for Microbiology • Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography • Ecological Society of America • International Mycological Association • International Society for Artificial Life • International Society for Microbial Ecology • International Symbiosis Society, Treasurer/Executive Committee (2018-present) • National Society for Experiential Education • The Phycological Society of America
University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), Oxford MS
University of Hawaii-Hilo
