Building teams for hard measurements

Scientific leadership

Biophysical & Biomedical Measurement at NIST

I direct NIST’s primary group for physical measurements in biology. The group brings together physical scientists, biomedical engineers, associate researchers, and theorists to develop devices, measurement methods, and quantitative frameworks across biomolecules, cells, and tissues. Programs include cytometry, single-molecule sensing, electronic biophysical measurements, organ-on-chip systems, and quantitative response to drugs and other perturbations.

My role is to set multi-year scientific strategy, develop new programs, manage resources and staffing, connect experimental projects to quantitative theory, and create collaborations that allow capabilities distributed across institutions to function as an integrated program.

Program building

Creating structures that enable collaboration

I spearheaded a clearer framework for defining NIST’s role in funded collaborations with academic and clinical partners. This has helped make responsibilities and contributions to shared experimental programs more concrete from the outset.

I now participate as a Co-Investigator on a Wake Forest-led NIH U01 in human biodosimetry, contributing NIST measurement and modeling capabilities within the broader team. More generally, I develop research roadmaps that connect near-term measurements and publications to longer-term capabilities in high-throughput measurement, hierarchical biological systems, and experimental biomolecular dynamics.

Teaching

From physical intuition to working methods

As an Assistant Professor of Physics at Oregon State University, I designed and taught graduate courses and maintained an average teaching evaluation of 5.4/6.0. My teaching emphasizes the movement between physical intuition, mathematical structure, computational implementation, and experimental consequence.