School of Science

Over the last few years, I worked closely with Tetherless World Constellation Professors on several Semantic Web and e-Science related projects. One of the projects I worked with Professor Fox is called Multi-Sensor Data Synergy Advisor (MDSA). The goal is to use semantic web technologies and ontologies to build online tools for data access, visualization and analysis and support data inter-comparisons from different sensors or models.

Coming into college I knew that I was interested in studying math and getting involved in undergraduate research. I had the opportunity to work with Professor Drew in the Math Sciences Department my second semester freshman year and it was this research experience that led me to apply for the Accelerated B.S./Ph.D. Program.

I grew up in Greenville, NY, a small town not very far from RPI. During my senior year of high school, in 2005, I had the opportunity to attend college classes at RPI through a Johns Hopkins CTY scholarship. This experience influenced my decision to attend RPI as an undergraduate the next year. I had not decided on a specific career path, but I had enjoyed my math classes in high school, so I chose to major in mathematics.

Coming to Rensselaer I brought with me a passion for science, specifically related to the field of medicinal chemistry. The School of Science Accelerated BS/PhD Program allowed me to dive into research and explore my interests in the field of chemistry—permitting me to work under a variety of researchers, exploring an array of topics.

I am presently a graduate student with Prof. Chris Bystroff, majoring in Biochemistry and Biophysics with a concentration in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics. We have focused on designing green fluorescent protein (GFP) - a naturally-occurring, intrinsically fluorescent molecule - to serve as a potential biosensor for pathogen detection. We have demonstrated previously at a proof-of-concept level that GFP can be reorganized to omit key elements of its structure that eliminate or severely weaken the fluorescent signal given off, that the reintroduction of these key structural features from an external source restore the protein's fluorescence, and that the remaining reorganized, edited GFP variant can be rationally redesigned to emit fluorescence in the presence of a different target sequence, ideally from another protein whose presence we want to screen.