Building a spinout from our work at X, focused on using AI, biotechnology, and traditional breeding to make an agricultural system that heals the planet.

CROPPS is a NSF funded multi-center research center aimed at "opening a dialogue with plants to expand our understanding of the living world and empower a future of sustainable, resilient, and nutritious agriculture." Partner institutions include Cornell University, University of Illinois Urabana-Champaign, University of Arizona, and the Boyce-Thompson Institute.Responsibilities of the EAB include:• Providing high level guidance and advice• Evaluating progress toward optimal… Show more CROPPS is a NSF funded multi-center research center aimed at "opening a dialogue with plants to expand our understanding of the living world and empower a future of sustainable, resilient, and nutritious agriculture." Partner institutions include Cornell University, University of Illinois Urabana-Champaign, University of Arizona, and the Boyce-Thompson Institute.Responsibilities of the EAB include:• Providing high level guidance and advice• Evaluating progress toward optimal outcomes• Ensure that the Center is addressing important issues in the field and is aware of relevant newdiscoveries and/or emerging developments globally• Share expertise to help guide the Center• Seek synergies across Center themes and projects• Advise the Center on fostering a team culture• Advise the Center on its integrated education and public engagement activities• Advise the Center on its diversity, equity and inclusion activities. Show less

Advising multinational, startup, venture, and charitable organizations on biotechnology, energy, conservation biology, agriculture, and infectious diseases.

Through the combination of machine learning, deep sequencing, developmental and synthetic biology, we’re on a mission to create impactful solutions to one of the world’s biggest challenges - climate change.

Worked with leaders in industry and academia to source new ideas, perform technical and economic analyses and initial experiments to help turn ideas into projects.

Contributed to the strategy to support synthetic biology-based interventions towards stopping invasive species and diagnostic approaches to reducing illegal wildlife trafficking.Proposed, researched, and developed specific technological innovations, including novel strategies to mitigate amphibian extinctions via microbiome engineering and monitor endangered species populations by acoustic methods.

TL Biolabs was an a16z and Y Combinator backed startup that is developing a novel, low-cost nucleic acid testing platform. As Chief Scientific Officer I directed the molecular biology research and oversaw the integration of all the research and development teams at the company.Outcomes I was held accountable for:• Building a culture of scientific rigor• Ensuring the R&D teams are aligned with the business goals• Ensuring the business goals are aligned with the… Show more TL Biolabs was an a16z and Y Combinator backed startup that is developing a novel, low-cost nucleic acid testing platform. As Chief Scientific Officer I directed the molecular biology research and oversaw the integration of all the research and development teams at the company.Outcomes I was held accountable for:• Building a culture of scientific rigor• Ensuring the R&D teams are aligned with the business goals• Ensuring the business goals are aligned with the science• Defining the mid-term scientific direction of the company• Defining the path to long term innovation and scientific leadership• Creating and managing the intellectual property portfolio• Creating, managing, and chairing the Scientific Advisory Board (currently George Church and Marc Unger)Competencies required:• Experience in recruitment and management of a research team• Technical excellence• Adept verbal communication skills for both technical and non-technical stakeholders• Actively seeks feedback on process, technology, and communication• Ability to coordinate the research of interdisciplinary teams, including setting priorities within each research team, developing timelines, deliverables, and goals on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis, and being a source of technical assistance across teams • Ability to switch between short, medium, and long term vision• Ability to convert long term strategy into short term actions• A deep understanding of the business, including business goals and their implications, markets, risks, etc. Show less

Led the Grand Challenges China program, a collaboration with the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC). This role required diplomacy, patience, effective communication, sensitivity to culture similarities/differences, technical acumen, as well as management of support personnel and expert reviewers.Gave strategic guidance to leadership in the Discovery & Translational Sciences team.Researched, developed, designed, and acquired funding for a $5M Grand Challenges… Show more Led the Grand Challenges China program, a collaboration with the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC). This role required diplomacy, patience, effective communication, sensitivity to culture similarities/differences, technical acumen, as well as management of support personnel and expert reviewers.Gave strategic guidance to leadership in the Discovery & Translational Sciences team.Researched, developed, designed, and acquired funding for a $5M Grand Challenges Explorations program after just 1 month with the Foundation. The program is aimed at developing bacteriophage to engineer newborn and infant gut microbiota as a means to combat environmental enteropathy in developing countries. Co-led the $50M New Interventions for Global Health Grand Challenges program, a request for proposals targeted at developing disruptive technologies in vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics for developing countries. Required organizing and coordinating teams of technical experts, logistical resources, and leadership for proposal triage, review, and grant making.Managed 7 multi-million dollar grants in diagnostics (malaria VOC detection, newborn endoscopy technology), drug discovery (chemical diversity, especially using synthetic biology, reduction of the evolution of resistance), vaccine production, and platform solutions. This required managing complex teams within the matrixed internal structure of the foundation, as well as large, multi-investigator teams externally.Directly interacted with leadership on the therapeutics, vaccines, enteric & diarrheal disease and tuberculosis teams in the context of being a source of innovative ideas. Show less

Performed primary molecular biology research aimed at developing a new modality of neural recording: the engineering of error prone DNA polymerases to serve as molecular recorders of intracellular ion fluxes that are correlated with neural firings.Developed a road map, based on fundamental physical, chemical, and biological principles, for development of the next generation of neuroscience technologies.Work has contributed to the BRAIN Initiative, announced by president Obama on… Show more Performed primary molecular biology research aimed at developing a new modality of neural recording: the engineering of error prone DNA polymerases to serve as molecular recorders of intracellular ion fluxes that are correlated with neural firings.Developed a road map, based on fundamental physical, chemical, and biological principles, for development of the next generation of neuroscience technologies.Work has contributed to the BRAIN Initiative, announced by president Obama on April 1, 2013. Show less

Performed advanced scoping and technical analysis for the $280M/year agency, which is tasked with investing in transformative energy technology development.Developed the TERRA program, a ~$30M program aimed at developing advanced robotic phenotyping platforms for high-throughput, in-field analysis of bioenergy crops.Provided program and project support for PETRO, a ~$50M program aimed at developing plants that directly produce biofuels. Responsibilities included deep technical… Show more Performed advanced scoping and technical analysis for the $280M/year agency, which is tasked with investing in transformative energy technology development.Developed the TERRA program, a ~$30M program aimed at developing advanced robotic phenotyping platforms for high-throughput, in-field analysis of bioenergy crops.Provided program and project support for PETRO, a ~$50M program aimed at developing plants that directly produce biofuels. Responsibilities included deep technical analysis, collaboration/discussion with leaders in the field, management of funded projects, scoping of potential new projects, support of fledgling projects, and technical guidance to performers.Initiated and developed potential programs through individual research. Contributions include deep dives on methods to lower the energy intensity of infrastructure materials via self-healing methodologies, the engineering of plant reflectivity for decreased water usage and lessened radiative forcing, and biological methods to lower the environmental impacts of mining.Served as a reviewer for internal and external grant proposals and provided program direction for individual projects funded by the IDEAS funding opportunity. Each project is funded up to 1 year, at a cost of up to $500K.Lead on the PETRO InnoCentive crowdsourcing challenge, a $30,000 challenge to develop high-throughput plant energy content assays. Show less

Concurrent position with ARPA-E. See description above.

Conducted primary scientific research on neuroscience, synthetic biology, and biotechnology development. Projects included: - Construction of a DNA ticker-tape system to record whole-brain neural activity. - Elucidation of the biochemical principles limiting ssDNA oligo recombination.Co-wrote a multimillion-dollar TR01 grant to the National Institutes of Health (funded).

Conducted primary scientific research in biophysics, physics, synthetic biology, molecular biology, genetics and biochemistry. Projects included: - The creation of a minimal cell from a yeast mitochondrion. - The creation of a photosynthetic mitochondrion in yeast. - Single molecule transcriptional studies of the yeast mitochondrial RNA polymerase, Rpo41. - Single molecule studies of transcriptional pausing. Comparative studies of the nuclear and mitochondrial RNA… Show more Conducted primary scientific research in biophysics, physics, synthetic biology, molecular biology, genetics and biochemistry. Projects included: - The creation of a minimal cell from a yeast mitochondrion. - The creation of a photosynthetic mitochondrion in yeast. - Single molecule transcriptional studies of the yeast mitochondrial RNA polymerase, Rpo41. - Single molecule studies of transcriptional pausing. Comparative studies of the nuclear and mitochondrial RNA polymerases in yeast.Led the creation of a new laboratory, including procurement of capital equipment, institution of fundamental procedures and protocols, and hiring of a technician and two postdoctoral researchers.Served as group safety officer, chemical safety officer, and biological safety officer.Mentored five undergraduate and two graduate students. Show less

Developed lesson plans, graded examinations and quizzes, held office hours, and taught classes for undergraduate students studying mechanics, optics, quantum mechanics, and special relativity.

Was responsible for the overall sustainability policy for the entire BSC, a student owned and operated, affordable housing cooperative, consisting of 12 independent houses, housing over 1200 residents.Worked closely with the executive director, the board of directors, and the residents on sustainability policy issues.Worked with Berkeley City Council, local government officials, university officials, and the private sector to secure funding for energy efficiency retrofits of our… Show more Was responsible for the overall sustainability policy for the entire BSC, a student owned and operated, affordable housing cooperative, consisting of 12 independent houses, housing over 1200 residents.Worked closely with the executive director, the board of directors, and the residents on sustainability policy issues.Worked with Berkeley City Council, local government officials, university officials, and the private sector to secure funding for energy efficiency retrofits of our houses and other programs, including federal stimulus funding, PG&E CARE grants, etc.Performed capital project management on energy efficiency retrofits of our houses. Worked with the maintenance director, maintenance crew, third party efficiency contractors, house residents, and house management in coordinating projects, each totaling over $30,000 in costs. Oversaw the Energy Efficiency Fund, a budget within the BSC earmarked for energy efficiency capital projects, totaling over $200,000. Organized sustainability projects for the “global work party,” in conjunction with 350.org. Show less

Managed a team of 3 tasked to perform routine and emergency maintenance on three houses, home to 57 graduate and re-entry student residents.Served as a manager, with liability, authority, and responsibility for the houses and their residents. Controlled four budgets ranging from minor house improvements to large-scale capital projects. Total budgetary authority over $20,000. Sat on a committee responsible for the overall maintenance policy of the entire BSC, with… Show more Managed a team of 3 tasked to perform routine and emergency maintenance on three houses, home to 57 graduate and re-entry student residents.Served as a manager, with liability, authority, and responsibility for the houses and their residents. Controlled four budgets ranging from minor house improvements to large-scale capital projects. Total budgetary authority over $20,000. Sat on a committee responsible for the overall maintenance policy of the entire BSC, with budgetary authority totaling approximately $1 million. Initiated and executed various large scale energy efficiency improvements including lighting, duct, heating, and thermal shell retrofits. Show less

Responsible for the safety and security of the approximately 600 residents of the International House, a nonprofit housing organization aimed at fostering cultural exchanges between international and domestic students. Served as a liaison between the residents and the administration. Initiated a lighting retrofit, totaling over $20,000.

Performed primary scientific research in optics for LIGO, a project to detect celestial gravitational waves which won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2017.