These questions led me to major in Astronomy at the University of Arizona, where I learned that all astronomy is based on physics, and all physics is based on math. Thus, in a roundabout way, I was led back into mathematics and I ended up with Bachelor of Science degrees in Astronomy, Physics, and Mathematics.

Outside of the classroom, my research career began in the burgeoning field of exoplanets. My first major project involved the implementation of a computer algorithm designed to extract the signal from faint planets next to extremely bright stars, with the ultimate goal of detecting signs of life in the atmospheres of these planets. At the heart of this problem, however, is the fact that we don’t know exactly what life should look like on other planets, and that is primarily because we don’t know what “life” really is. Thus, for my PhD research, I chose to study the difference between living and non-living systems, with the aim of identifying salient features of life that are perhaps general enough to understand what life may look like outside of earth.

To this end, I study the emergence of collective behavior in ant colonies as they choose between potential nest sites. I use Information Theory to try and pin down where and how abstract information is instantiated physically within this system as the ability to internalize meaningful information is a key difference between living and non-living systems. In addition, I test mathematical theories of emergence and consciousness, in order to see whether these theories match our intuitive understanding of these concepts.

I started out at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, before transferring to the University of Virginia after two years, as they had a very strong astronomy program. I double-majored in both astronomy and biology there, and got my first taste of academic research, analyzing the opposition surge of Saturn’s moon Iapetus. After that, I found myself at Washington State University for graduate school, working on modeling the nutrient and energy flows in subglacial ecosystems. After completing my Master’s degree there, I started on a PhD, though that fell through for a variety of reasons; fortunately, I soon discovered Sara Walker’s lab at Arizona State University (ASU), and headed south.

I’m now currently in the third year of my PhD, studying how the atmosphere of a planet interacts with its biosphere, and how we can potentially detect those interactions using network theory. My hope is that this research will lead to better and more reliable biosignatures for exoplanets, now that we’re reaching the point where we can observe earth-like planets around other stars at sufficiently high resolution. I’m also involved in a side project studying the biogeochemistry of nearby Tempe Town Lake, and how it changes across very small time-scales, and previously contributed to another research project at ASU, modeling the availability of critical biological nutrients on planets that are entirely covered by oceans.

Throughout my meanderings through academia, the overarching theme has been trying to understand how the complex interactions between individual lifeforms power ecosystem dynamics, and collectively affected and are effected by the surrounding environment. I believe that we cannot hope to understand the phenomenon of life in isolation — it must be considered in the context in which it emerges.

My current research is about the Physics of Life. Life is complex, brilliant, and intelligent. What makes life be so? Can life be found in other planets? Can life be simulated? And finally, what is life? What is consciousness?

The research above are all driven by my interest and curiosity, so I also interested in ancient music and 3d modeling. Also, strictly speaking, all of my actions tend to provide more possibilities for my future paths.