I’ve always been insatiably curious and have spent most of my life learning about how the world hangs together and trying to show other people the amazing things I’ve found.
I earned a BA in philosophy and a BS in physics from the University of New Hampshire before going to earn a BFA sculpture at Mass College of Art and Design. Fascinated by big questions, next I spent 5 years working towards a Ph.D. in philosophy at Brown studying the philosophy of perception and the relationship between mind and world. While taking classes in cognitive science, I kept finding myself longing for more scientific answers then philosophy could produce and my hands missed making things. So, I left the program a year shy of my Ph.D. and started a studio furniture making business. After a divorce and trying to raise two girls by myself, I decided to go back to school to get a ‘practical’ degree. While earning my masters in mechanical engineering, I started collaborating with Sheila Patek and became fascinated with the interface of biology and physics. I completed my MSME in 2012 with David Schmidt and my phD in Organismic and Evolutionary biology in 2016 working under Gary Gillis. I went onto be a post-doctoral researcher in kinesiology at Penn state in the Rubenson Lab and in the Daley Neuromechanics lab at the University of California, Irvine. Presently, I am a research scientist working with Sheila Patek at Duke University. When I’m not making things or doing science, I love to white water kayak and build things (machines, houses, sculptures).
I earned a BA in philosophy and a BS in physics from the University of New Hampshire before going to earn a BFA sculpture at Mass College of Art and Design. Fascinated by big questions, next I spent 5 years working towards a Ph.D. in philosophy at Brown studying the philosophy of perception and the relationship between mind and world. While taking classes in cognitive science, I kept finding myself longing for more scientific answers then philosophy could produce and my hands missed making things. So, I left the program a year shy of my Ph.D. and started a studio furniture making business. After a divorce and trying to raise two girls by myself, I decided to go back to school to get a ‘practical’ degree. While earning my masters in mechanical engineering, I started collaborating with Sheila Patek and became fascinated with the interface of biology and physics. I completed my MSME in 2012 with David Schmidt and my phD in Organismic and Evolutionary biology in 2016 working under Gary Gillis. I went onto be a post-doctoral researcher in kinesiology at Penn state in the Rubenson Lab and in the Daley Neuromechanics lab at the University of California, Irvine. Presently, I am a research scientist working with Sheila Patek at Duke University. When I’m not making things or doing science, I love to white water kayak and build things (machines, houses, sculptures).