I have experience working as a scientist in both industry and academia in many fields at many different levels of resources. For my graduate work, I performed research in the laboratory of Dr. Joseph Bergan. I focused on understanding individual neural pathways that produce social behavior in the mouse and how they function in social interactions. This research was divided into three parts, technical development and design, neuroanatomy, behavioral analysis, and neural signal recordings. I developed a novel method for making large tissue samples optically transparent for further analysis of neuroanatomy and performing immunohistochemical labeling on these intact tissue samples. Using this method, I performed rabies tracing on a genetically specific population of neurons and identified all know inputs to these cells across the brain using light-sheet microscopy and custom MATLAB analysis scripts that I assisted in developing. I also worked on a project to identify the neural and behavioral correlates of social interaction in a controlled environment. In this research, I developed an automated stimulus presentation approach to record and score the behavior and neural signals associated with each stimulus presentation. These data were also analyzed using custom MATLAB scripts that I developed for behavioral scoring and neural signal analysis. In my academic research while working for my undergraduate degree, I worked closely with chemists and molecular biologists. In the lab of Dr. Li-Jun Ma, I worked on two projects, one in bioinformatics analysis of DNA sequence data from the fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum. I used a Linux-based super-computing server to perform BLAST analysis on several transcription factor sequences and worked to categorize specific transcription factors based on their attachments to each sequence. In the lab of Jim Chambers, I focused on modifying the sequence of the GABA-A-alpha5 subunit of GABA receptor in the zebrafish with quickchange mutagenesis so that it could be conjugated with a light-sensitive probe. My experience in analytical science comes from two industry internships. At Bruker Daltonics, I worked in the demonstration laboratory under highly competent chemists to analyze customer-provided chemical samples using state-of-the-art LC/MS approaches. My personal project involved improving analysis of large, organic samples long columns. At PNA innovations, I worked with organic chemists to develop new, stronger protein linkers to build long strings of probing protein nucleic acids that bind to specific DNA strands.