PhD Candidate in Integrative Biology
Mike Boots's Lab at UC Berkeley
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
Yale University '14
About Me
When I first started developing a strong interest in evolution, I was in a biological anthropology class. The idea that evolution was a process that could affect human beings' lived realities--their abilities to digest lactose and their propensities for disease--excited me. When I started learning about infectious disease evolution, I was even more excited by the idea that evolution could be an ongoing and relevant process happening on a lightning-fast time scale. Today, I am most motivated by fairly theoretical questions in infectious disease evolution rather than any truly applied questions, but the downstream relevance of my questions towards these ends still strongly motivates me. My history in the social sciences also means that I am interested in combining insights from these fields into our broader understandings of biological processes. This background also means that I am critical of the ways that social structures inform people's access to science and am strongly committed to trying to make science more inclusive of and welcoming to people from diverse backgrounds.
My scientific background is almost entirely in the wet lab, but I'd describe my interests as empirical evolutionary theory and I'm also starting to develop my skill set and literacy in mathematical theory approaches. For my PhD, I'm interested in the effects of host population structure on infectious disease evolution, especially looking at the structuring of host genetic diversity. More broadly, I'm interested in the conditions that affect the evolution of virulence, generalism/specialism, emergence, and adaptability in infectious diseases. In the wider biological literature, I am extremely excited about theoretically and conceptually driven evolution research, especially when it has a predictive bent or sheds light on the processes underlying broad patterns.
My scientific background is almost entirely in the wet lab, but I'd describe my interests as empirical evolutionary theory and I'm also starting to develop my skill set and literacy in mathematical theory approaches. For my PhD, I'm interested in the effects of host population structure on infectious disease evolution, especially looking at the structuring of host genetic diversity. More broadly, I'm interested in the conditions that affect the evolution of virulence, generalism/specialism, emergence, and adaptability in infectious diseases. In the wider biological literature, I am extremely excited about theoretically and conceptually driven evolution research, especially when it has a predictive bent or sheds light on the processes underlying broad patterns.
Curriculum Vitae
Research PositionsMike Boots Lab (2016-Present)
PhD Candidate Department of Integrative Biology University of California, Berkeley PROJECTS: Effects of Host Genetic Diversity on Infectious Disease Evolution Adam Lauring Lab (2014-2016) Research Laboratory Technician Associate Department of Infectious Diseases University of Michigan, Ann Arbor PROJECTS: Mutational Robustness of Influenza A Virus Paul Turner Lab (2012-2014) Undergraduate Researcher Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Yale University, New Haven PROJECTS: Experimental Evolution of Thermotolerance in Bacteriophage Brenda Bradley Lab (2011-2014) Undergraduate Researcher / Research Assistant Department of Anthropology Yale University, New Haven PROJECTS: Microsatellite Genotyping of Chimpanzees from Fecal Samples, Mitochondrial Genotyping of Sifaka Lemurs Teaching PositionsField Genomics Short Course (Summer 2019)
Graduate Student Instructor Instructor: Aaron Pomerantz University of California, Berkeley IB 114 : Infectious Disease Dynamics (Spring 2017) Graduate Student Instructor Professor: Mike Boots University of California, Berkeley IB 35AC : Human Biological Variation (Fall 2016) Graduate Student Instructor Professor: Leslea Hlusko University of California, Berkeley |
EducationUniversity of California, Berkeley (2016-Present)
PhD, Department of Integrative Biology (In Progress) Advisor: Mike Boots Thesis: "Effects of Spatio-Temporally Structured Host Genetic Diversity on Infectious Disease Evolution" (Proposed) Qualifying Exam Committee: Britt Koskella, Michael Shapira, Carl Boettiger, and James Holland Jones (Passed December 2017) Dissertation Committee: Mike Boots, Britt Koskella, Erica Bree Rosenblum Training Courses: Evolutionary Biology in Guarda (June 2018) Yale University (2010-2014) BS, Biology (Intensive) Advisor: Paul Turner Thesis: "Characterization and Experimental Evolution of Thermotolerance in the Cystoviridae Family of Bacteriophage Virus" BA Honors, Anthropology Advisor: Brenda Bradley Thesis: "Evidence of Molecular Aging in the Mitochondria of Sifaka Lemurs" Grants and AwardsNSF Graduate Research Fellow (2017)
NSF Graduate Research Fellow Honorable Mention (2016) Dean's Summer Research Award (2018, 2019) Departmental Conference Travel Grant (2018) Graduate Division Conference Travel Grant (2018) Peter and Marion Schwartz Family Foundation Prize for Most Outstanding Senior Essay in Biological Anthropology (2014) Mellon Forum Fellow (2013) Mellon Forum Grant Recipient (2013) Tetelman Fellowship for International Research in the Sciences (2013) Richter Fellowship for Summer Research (2013) |
