About Me

Hello and thanks for visiting! I have worn many hats over the years but at my core, I am a huge science nerd who loves all things neuroscience. I have a passion for learning about different cultures, which means I enjoy studying languages and extended travel. I have lived in 5 countries and visited around 40. I’m excited learning about breakthrough technologies and their potential impact on humanity.

I currently work as a neuroscience research assistant in the Drosophila Connectomics Group based out of the University of Cambridge in England. Our group is working on building the first densely reconstructed synaptic resolution connectome within a fruit fly brain. In other words, we are building a detailed map of all neural connections within a fly brain. Surprisingly to many, flies display an array of complicated behaviors (learning, memory, territorial aggression etc.) and are a great model to study core principles of how the brain works. Furthermore, once we have multiple complete connectomes in the fly, it will open up all sorts of interesting follow on work.

My previous job was at Deloitte Consulting based in Washington, DC, where I worked across a large range of projects that spanned Deloitte’s federal, commercial, international, and state teams. My favorite three projects were working on a private sector competitiveness project in Vietnam, working with the department of treasury in Puerto Rico, and working with a pharmaceutical company in New York to help build out their multiple sclerosis franchise.

This year, I am applying to PhD programs in neuroscience to start in the fall of 2023. I am most interested in theoretical neuroscience and loosely plan to study how the brain (and other cognitive networks) interacts with its environment. Some research questions I am interested in are below.

ReseaRch interests

Keywords: embedded cognition, embodied cognition, cultural neuroscience, predictive processing, free energy principle, computational models, theoretical neuroscience

  • How does the interplay between the brain and its environment impact information processing and what constraints does the environment put on brain processing?

  • How does the brain use/rely on its surroundings and inputs to perform computations and develop? I.e., roles of recurrent feedback loops and environmental dependent phenotypes. This could include questions of metaplasticity and hysteresis.

  • How does the environment cause the brain to shift between states? What macro parameters (electric field potential, behavioral/sensory states, inputs from conspecifics) does a brain have access to and rely on for computations?

See a selection of my academic work here.

As an undergraduate student, I worked in Prof. Elizabeth Marin’s Neurobiology Lab studying neurodevelopment in fruit flies. I was always fascinated by how a brain could be built and transformed from a single cell, to larva, to adult in so little time and so consistently accurate. At a more macroscopic level, I was interested in the neural correlates of cooperation and collaboration, including some of the topics below. I am still intrigued by these topics, but also keen to understand some of the underlying brain circuitry, networks, and functions that allow for complex thought at all.  One topic of particular interest to me is understanding under what circumstances the brain may perform the same task using different neuronal networks and regions.

My Undergraduate Research Interests:

  • How culture and environment shape thought at a psychological and biological level - a topic I touched on in a TEDx Talk I gave at Bucknell University

  • The neurological correlates of cooperation and conflict, with an eye towards understanding the evolutionary conditions that promoted the extremely high level of cooperation observed in the human species today

  • How differing environmental and cultural conditions, both today and over evolutionary time, might have impacted the neurological processes being recruited in cooperative tasks

Some of my 2022 Goals

  • Apply for PhDs in neuroscience!

    • Learn to code

  • Run a marathon - third time is the charm. This year I started practicing yoga and am focused on running slowly, with my only goal being to finish, rather than with a focus on time

  • Try out a 3 day water only fast - triggered from reading and listening to Peter Attia

Some of my 2021 Goal

  • Begin the transition back to neuroscience research begin my PhD journey

  • Run a marathon in under 3 hours and work towards running a 50k race

Some of my 2020 Goals

  • Form a habit of meditation

  • Run a marathon in under 3 hours

  • Journal at least once a month

  • Read some philosophy and get back into reading fiction

Some of my 2019 Goals

  • Continue with Vietnamese class at least once per week

  • Make a real estate investment

  • Do more touristy things in the city I live in

  • Define what success means to me

Some of my 2018 Goals

  • Start a new job at a mission driven organization

  • Finish my eBook ("Why to Study Abroad")

  • Become fluent in Vietnamese and brush up on my French

  • Visit Brazil

Some of my 2017 Goals

  • Do something that scares me every week

  • Read an average of one book every two weeks (here is the list)

  • Be conversationally proficient in Vietnamese by June, 2017

  • Spend at least 1 month in a new country