About

I work at Yahoo as a Research Scientist, focused on bringing and developing the latest machine learning advances to applications for the benefit of the company's users and adverstisers. Sometimes I get to share our work with the wider research community, and you can find more about what I do and have done on the Projects page.

I completed my PhD work in the Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at UC Berkeley with Mike DeWeese. My dissertation research focused on machine learning, the statistics of natural sounds and scenes, and models of sensory processing.

I spent the first three years of graduate school at UC Berkeley on theoretical particle physics before finding a better fit in theoretical/computational neuroscience. Before that I got my B.A. magna cum laude in physics and math at Pomona College in Claremont, CA in 2012. My physics thesis explored my trials and tribulations in Dwight Whitaker's BEC lab, my math thesis with Vin de Silva explained conservation laws using symplectic geometry, and I spent a summer at CERN making handy histograms for the CMS RPC group and other acronyms.

Born in St. Louis, MO, I grew up in a quiet suburb called Des Peres and graduated from Parkway South High in 2008.

I now live in Berkeley, CA with my wife and cats. In my free time I enjoy singing and other musical activities as well as ultimate (frisbee) and the occasional game on a board or computer screen.