I am pursuing a Ph.D. in the Harvard Biophysics Graduate Program with Florian Engert, researching innateness in neurodevelopment and AI (2018-TBD). In summer 2021, I was a NeuroAI Scholar at CSHL with Tony Zador and Alex Koulakov.

I am passionate about how theory can accelerate neurodevelopment research, and how neurodev and neuroevolution can inform machine learning and neuroscience models. I have organized two workshops on the topic, one at Cosyne 2023, and an internal event at Harvard in May 2023.

I received my B.S. in Physics from the University of Notre Dame, where I worked with Zoltán Toroczkai on distance-based network models of brain connectivity (2013-2017).

Previously,

• I worked on a Postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award at the National Institute of Mental Health (2017-2018).
• As a Janelia Undergraduate Scholar, I modeled fly behavior using Reinforcement Learning with Ann Hermundstad and Vivek Jayaraman (2017).
• I participated in the Undergraduate Research Program at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, optimizing a calcium imaging analysis pipeline with Anne Churchland and Matt Kaufman (2016).
• At MIT, I prototyped methods for reconstructing neurons from Expansion Microscopy with Adam Marblestone and Ed Boyden (2015).
• Even earlier, I assisted with Yeast-Two Hybrid assays of protein-protein interactions with Nidhi Sahni in Marc Vidal's Center for Cancer Systems Biology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute (2012), and developed face recognition software for social interaction research with Manuel Cebrian in Sandy Pentland's Human Dynamics group at the MIT Media Lab (2010).

Page me at barabasi(a)fas(d)harvard(d)edu.