My research focused on statistical modeling of protein evolution. The goal of my work was to improve understanding of protein alignment, phylogeny, and the evolution of protein structure. These problems lie at the intersection of statistics, structural biology, and bioinformatics. My advisor was Scott Schmidler.Projects incorporated Bayesian modeling / MCMC in R and Java, including use of tools such as MPI for parallel programming and C++ for improving code performance.

Provided independent statistical consulting services to clients, for example:Client 1: a regional professional services firm. Statistical modeling to measure and improve the accuracy of an in-house scoring metric critical to the firm’s strategy for new business.Client 2: Public policy graduate student. Performed statistical analysis to strengthen the client’s Master’s thesis defense, and educated the client in properly presenting the analysis to his audience.

Assisted multinational enterprises with addressing human resources issues in their current or planned operations in mainland China. Specific experience includes:• project manager for pension and long-term savings plan design, vendor selection, and implementation• contributions to Mercer's regional marketing publications and other client-facing materials, international legislative updates, podcasts, etc.• completed actuarial valuation projects in the Tokyo office (IAS, FAS)• benefit review projects, market benchmarking and peer group analysis• collaborated with local-market and regional business leaders to propose and develop strategies for revenue growth

Supported client accounts in an analyst role with some on-site consulting. Duties centered around annual valuation of defined benefit pension plans and post-retirement medical plans. Specifics include:• Prepared clients’ accounting expense and disclosure materials, primarily according to FAS 87, 106; some work related to GASB 45• Participated in a small audit team with a client, auditing the administrative history of their pension plan spanning decades, several pension legislation changes, and hundreds of employees.• Trained newly-hired analysts on Mercer’s proprietary valuation systems and documentation practices• Assisted clients with defined contribution plan design by preparing benchmarking studies within industry peer groups