I am a Peabody Double Degree student from Orange County, California. At Homewood, I am a biophysics major and a physics minor. At the Peabody Institute, I am a saxophone performance major. I entered Hopkins in Fall 2020 and will graduate in Spring 2025, as Peabody Double Degree typically takes five years to complete. 

I started working in the lab of Professor Taekjip Ha, a former Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biophysics, in my freshman year. In my research, I developed the protocol of a single-molecule cyclization experiment to quantitatively measure how different types of DNA mismatches impact the flexibility of DNA. Throughout my time at the Ha Lab, Professor Ha had been incredibly open to discussing scientific ideas with me and giving me the independence to lead my project. I also had the opportunity to present my work at the 2024 Biophysical Society Annual Meeting and publish my results in the journal eLife. 

Beyond research, I have been a teaching assistant for Intro to Computing, an intro-level programming course offered by the Biophysics Department, since Fall 2021. It is always a pleasure to work with Dr. Maria Procopio, who is always so patient and kind with everyone, and I have enjoyed interacting with students from all kinds of backgrounds. 

Overall, I have found that the biophysics majors form a tight-knit community. Beyond taking classes together, biophysics majors get to socialize in fun departmental events like BAM (Biophysics Autumn Mixer) and BURF (Biophysics Undergraduate Research Festival). As I have progressed through this major, I have come to appreciate the incredible people I have met, the cutting-edge scientific ideas I have been exposed to, and the rigorous training that taught me how to do good science.