Statistical biophysicist studying the microbiome

I work with David Sivak and the Stochastic Thermodynamics group at Simon Fraser University, and was previously a Banting (2020-22) and PIMS (2022-23) Postdoctoral Fellow. I received a PhD in physics from UC Santa Barbara in 2020 with supervisor Jean Carlson as part of the Complex Systems group.

I model the stochastic processes that underlie microbial colonization

Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) can permanently alter a person’s microbiome composition, curing associated gastrointestinal diseases like C. difficile infection. I specialize in the stochastic factors that influence microbiome assembly and cause everyone’s gut microbiome to be unique. I work closely with experimental collaborators to motivate, ground, and test ecological theory in model organisms, including fruit flies and duckweed.

Here is my CV. For a list of my publications, refer to my Google Scholar page. Some recent posters summarize my theoretical and and experimental research.


“Biological research is in crisis … we are drowning in a sea of data and thirsting for some theoretical framework with which to understand it. Although many believe that ‘more is better’, history tells us that ’least is best’. We need theory and a firm grasp on the nature of the objects we study to predict the rest.” —Sydney Brenner, 2012