I have a joint appointment in physics & astronomy and biophysics. I work on the physics of cell biology, trying to understand how cells can respond to signals, crawl through complex environments, and work together to move and measure signals. I am also interested in the dynamics of subcellular processes like the cell membrane's motion and intracellular transport. These problems link the physics of soft, fluctuating materials to biological questions like how a white blood cell can find a wound. My group uses a wide range of computational and analytical methods to model organelles, cells, and tissues, ranging from stochastic hydrodynamics to phase field and reaction-diffusion modeling.

 

I received an undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2006. I then did graduate work in Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where I was supported by the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation, receiving my PhD in 2012. My postdoctoral research was at the University of California, San Diego from 2012 until 2017.