Awards

• 2019-2020 Hesburgh Award Teaching Fellow, Georgia Institute of Technology
• 2017-2018 Cullen-Peck Fellow, Georgia Institute of Technology
• 2017 DOE INCITE Award
• 2015-2020 NSF CAREER Award
• 2013 NIAID K22 Career Transition Award
• 2011-2012 Director’s Postdoctoral Fellowship, Argonne National Laboratory

Education

B.S., Physics and Mathematics, Western Illinois University, 2003; Ph.D., Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 2009

Research

My lab is focused on understanding how proteins and other biological systems function at a molecular level.  To probe these systems, we carry out molecular dynamics simulations, modeling biological behavior one atom at a time.  The simulations serve as a "computational microscope" that permits glimpses into a cell's inner workings through the application of advanced software and high-powered supercomputers.  We are particularly interested in how bacteria utilize unique pathways to synthesize proteins and insert them into both the inner and outer membranes, how they import nutrients across two membranes, and how their cell walls provide shape and mechanical strength.

Research Keywords

Computational Biochemistry and Biophysics; Membrane proteins; free-energy calculations