About me

I studied mathematics at MIT and UC Berkeley. After graduating, I was a NSF postdoc at Stanford University and a Visiting Assistant Professor in Statistics at the University of Chicago, working in statistics, population sequencing, and viral evolution. After that, I spent six years as a principal scientist at 23andMe, where I studied the genetics of a wide range of complex traits, from Parkinson’s disease to cilantro dislike. I became a data scientist at Coursera in 2014, where I worked to make online education more effective, available, and fun. After a stint at Calico working on longevity, I returned to 23andMe, working on using ML and GWAS to enhance phenotypes and predict longitudinal health outcomes. I’m now at insitro, using genetics and multi-modal phenotyping to better understand human disease.

Research Interests

  • Statistics, machine learning and discrete mathematics
  • Complex trait genetics, genome-wide association studies, heritability, and sequencing
  • Cancer tumor progression and HIV population evolution

Experience and Education

  • Director, Machine Learning Integrated Phenotyping; insitro, South San Francisco, CA (2024–present)
  • Senior Health R&D Scientist, 23andMe, Sunnyvale, CA (2018–2024)
  • Principal Data Scientist, Calico Labs, South San Francisco, CA (2016–2018)
  • Data Scientist, Coursera, Mountain View, CA (2014–2016)
  • Principal Scientist, Statistical Genetics, 23andMe, Mountain View, CA (2008–2014)
  • Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Chicago, Department of Statistics (2007–2008)
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Stanford University, Department of Statistics (2006–2007)
  • Emphasis in Computational and Genomic Biology, University of California, Berkeley (2001–2006)
  • Ph.D. Mathematics, University of California, Berkeley (2001–2006)
  • S.B. Mathematics (Minor in Music), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1997–2001)

Honors and awards

  • National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship — Mathematical Sciences (2006–2008)
  • Bernard Friedman Prize, University of California, Berkeley, top thesis in applied mathematics (2006)
  • National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship (2001–2004)
  • Westinghouse Science Talent Search, Third Place (1997)