ABOUT ME


I'm passionate about art, biology, and coding.

I run a non-profit art gallery and studio in Berkeley, California, called India Block Arts. We make art for Burning Man most years.

I have a PhD in Bioengineering, and have co-authored publications cited over a thousand times. One project yielded a patent.

I've been coding since I was a kid, and this PHP code I wrote in 2002 still comes up on Google searches (lol). These days, my code typically looks like this.





ART PROJECTS


Morphoscope

Burning Man, 2019

A decorative hexagonal pavilion, shaded during the day and illuminated by six warm lanterns at night. Inside, twelve Edison kinetoscopes, each displaying a different 35mm film when participants turn a crank.


Cochleae

Burning Man, 2018

The cochlea is the biological structure that senses sound in our environment. Sixteen scale models of human cochleae are illuminated by flashes of light in response to sound, representing auditory neurons firing when triggered by certain frequencies of sound.


Doughy-Sattva

Burning Man, 2017

Our lord, the Doughy-Sattva: a cross between the Pillsbury doughboy and Buddha. Nightly, a cinnamon roll communion is ceremonially administered to participants.


FlowerFriend

Burning Man, 2015

Wearable, rechargeable, LED flower necklaces. Each is unique, and has a unique color that only it displays. When one flower is in range of others, they exchange colors and display one another's unique color perfectly in sync while they remain in radio contact.

View Project

Interactive Ising Model

Fletcher Lab Art Show, 2015

An Ising model is a simple mathematical representation of ferromagnetism. Two vintage dials control the parameters of an Ising model projected on a screen. Colors shift periodically creating an interesting visual effect.


Teddybear Synthesizer

Ghost Ship Halloween, 2014
Inauguration Party for Libby Schaaf, 2015

A gyroscope in the body of an ordinary teddybear transmits the bear's orientation to a nearby computer/stereo, translating position into a tone. Tones are chosen to match the chord progression of a song played through several pairs of attached headphones


CURRICULUM VITAE


Research & Work Experience

Software Engineer
Square, San Francisco, CA
January 2021 - Present
Senior Software Engineer
OrderWrite, Atlanta, GA (remote)
January 2020 - December 2020
Software Engineer
One Codex, San Francisco, CA
November 2018 - January 2020
Graduate Student Researcher
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and University of California, Berkeley, CA
PI: Adam P. Arkin, Bioengineering
February 2014 - May 2018
Research Associate
Howard Hughes Medical Institute and New York University, New York, NY
PI: Dan R. Littman, Molecular Immunology
July 2010 - June 2012
Undergraduate Research Assistant
University of California, Berkeley, CA
PI: David V. Schaffer, Chemical Engineering
February 2009 - June 2010
UNIX Systems Administrator
The New York Internet Company, New York, NY
May 2007 - June 2008

Teaching Experience

Course Designer, Bioengineering 131/231
University of California, Berkeley, CA
August 2018 - December 2018
Graduate Student Instructor
University of California, Berkeley, CA

Semester Class
Fall 2015/16/17 Bioengineering 131/231, Introduction to Computational Molecular and Cell Biology
Spring 2017 Molecular and Cell Biology C148, Microbial Genomics and Genetics
Spring 2016 Bioengineering 101, Instrumentation in Biology and Medicine
August 2015 - December 2017

Education

Ph.D., Bioengineering
University of California, Berkeley, CA
December 2018
B.A., Molecular and Cell Biology
University of California, Berkeley, CA
August 2010

Awards and Honors

2017 Lewis Scholar
UC Berkeley Bioengineering departmental fellowship awarded to two students per year
2016 eLife Early-Career Award
Awarded to five percent of applicants to support travel to a conference
2012 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship
Awarded to ten percent of applicants nationally

Patents

Abramson SB, Scher JU, Littman DR, Pamer EG, Ubeda C, Longman RS, Sczesnak A.
“Causative agents and diagnostic methods relating to rheumatoid arthritis.”
U.S. Patent 10,011,883
Granted July 3, 2018