My graduate research focused on cellular and systems-level analysis of klinotaxis in the nematode C. elegans (a.k.a. "the worm"). Klinotaxis is a directed spatial orientation behavior that many species, including sharks and humans, adopt to find favorable stimuli such as chemical attractants or preferred temperature. As C. elegans are a scant 1mm in length and only 80 um wide, microfluidic devices have recently been adapted to aid many worm manipulations. I have developed a microfluidic device for the behavioral analysis of klinotaxis and as a result have become proficient in photolithographic methods. I am also proficient in electrophysiology and I specialize in optophysiological circuit analysis using genetically encoded calcium indicators and bacterial opsins.

Science teacher at the Fort Worth Can! Academy, a charter high school for at-risk students.