Overview
Research Interests:
- Monte Carlo methods; high-dimensional sampling algorithms; Mixing times of Markov chains; MCMC; Sequential Monte Carlo; probabilistic graphical models; Bayesian computation; probabilistic Machine Learning; Computational complexity of statistical inference.
- Computational biology; Protein structure and folding; computational immunology; computational biophysics; statistical physics; computational statistical mechanics; molecular evolution.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Associate Professor of Statistical Science
·
2010 - Present
Statistical Science,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Associate Professor in Computer Science
·
2011 - Present
Computer Science,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Recent Publications
The effect of osmolytes on peptide helicity: Experiments and predictions.
Journal Article Protein Sci · February 2026 Nascent helicity in polypeptides and unfolded proteins is a type of rapid local structure formation that could represent the earliest events in a protein folding reaction. Nascent helicity may also influence the physical properties of intrinsically disorde ... Full text Link to item CiteComputing the inducibility of broadly neutralizing antibodies under a context-dependent model of affinity maturation: applications to sequential vaccine design.
Journal Article Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) · September 2025 A key challenge in B-cell lineage-based vaccine design is understanding the "inducibility" of target neutralizing antibodies-the ability of these antibodies to be elicited by presentation of an immunogen. Induction relies on a combination of stochastic div ... Full text CiteOn Gibbs Sampling for Endpoint-Conditioned Neighbor-Dependent Sequence Evolution Models
Journal Article Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics · January 1, 2025 In 2008, Hobolth described an algorithm for sampling paths in models of DNA sequence evolution with neighbor dependence. We show that this algorithm fails to sample the desired target distribution, and provide a simple Metropolis acceptance step correction ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
DMS/NIGMS 1: Challenges in Stochastic Modeling and Computation for Sequential Vaccine Design
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2024 - 2027Evolutionary dynamics of zoonotic malaria
ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases · 2023 - 2025Deep Topological Sampling of Protein Structures - non-competing renewal for Year 4
ResearchSignificant Contributor · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2017 - 2022View All Grants
Education, Training & Certifications
Stanford University ·
2002
Ph.D.
University of California, Berkeley ·
1995
B.A.