NASA Post-Doctoral Fellow (2012-2014), The Scripps Research Institute 2010-2014 Ph.D. California Institute of Technology 2010 M.S. San Francisco State University 2004 B.S. University of California, Los Angeles 2001

Study of alternative genetic polymers from an origin of life persepective a) Synthesis of nucleoside and nucleotide monomers b) Synthesis of alternative nucleic acids via solid-phase methods c) Purification and characterization of oligomers using HPLC and spectroscopic methods Evolution of self-replicating peptides a) Engineer catalytic and recognition capabilities into peptides b) Evolving peptides through cycles of diversification, selection, and amplification