I’m a third year student at Michigan State University earing my dual PhD in Computer Science and Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior. I’m a member of the Evolutionary Control of Digital Ecologies lab, and am advised by the amazing Emily Dolson. I work on some of this really cool stuff:

Evolutionary swarm robotics

I recently received the NSF GRFP to study the impacts of different substrates and selection schemes on the evolution of swarms. This work is ongoing, but will hopefully be published soon. Supported by MABE and with help from Clifford Bohm.

The ecology–evolution continuum and the origin of life

Since I started my PhD, I’ve been working with Emily Dolson, Sydney Leither, and the Baum lab to investigate pre-genetic adaptive change. While the Baum lab does some super interesting lab work, I work on the computational side, modeling systems that could be representative of the early interactions of pre-biotic chemicals. A great in depth summary of this framework can be found in The ecology–evolution continuum and the origin of life by Baum et al. 2023.

Emergence and Information Theory

Working with Clifford Bohm and Vincent Ragusa, we’re developing a new theory of emergence. This paper might eventually see the light of day.