During college I initially pursued computer science, with the goal of becoming a software engineer. Then senior year I took a course in computational biology, and I realized computer science could leveraged to answer real questions about natural phenomena. I really wanted to use my computational skills to make an impact - computational biology is one way to do that, and it's a great time to be in this field.

• Creative problem solving is a big one, but more specifically...
• Being able to separate the signal from the noise
• Openness to being wrong or getting unexpected results
• Interest in making code efficient in time and space
• Investigating intriguing details or surprises

I started out with a math/computer science background, but I found that datasets in biology require an extra level of care. Through trial and error and google, I have learned a lot about working with large datasets. These types of skills are never finished though - there is always room to make my research faster, cleaner, and more statistically correct.

I am generally interested in using genomic data to answer questions about evolution. I have specifically worked on methods to infer ancient population size changes and migrations patterns. I am currently interested in how these types of demographic events interact with natural selection.