Biography
I’m an aerospace engineer and AI researcher with a PhD in computational biology. I architect spacecraft navigation systems at Astranis and research how AI agents work in high-stakes engineering environments. The combination is the point — state estimation, gene-phenotype prediction, and agent behavior are all problems of inference under uncertainty.
I bootstrapped the mission design for Odysseus, the first privately-owned lunar lander on the Moon. My doctoral work at UT Austin (NSF Fellow, Marcotte Lab) used orthologous phenotypes to predict gene-disease associations across species — work covered by Carl Zimmer in the New York Times (original, follow-up). Now I build the systems that make AI agents reliable enough to trust with real engineering work.
Background
I grew up on the border of Alexandria and Arlington, Virginia. A National Merit Scholar, I studied computer science at Virginia Tech (minoring in mathematics, Russian, and philosophy) and graduated in May 2007.
A few weeks after the tragedy at Virginia Tech, I started a doctoral program in cell and molecular biology at the University of Texas at Austin. While a student, I published on HIV virology and studied evolutionary systems biology in the Marcotte Lab. I also founded the SciRuby Project and wrote NMatrix, a linear algebra library for Ruby, and mentored students through Google Summer of Code.
The shooting led me to spend years at the Texas Legislature advocating for universal background checks and against campus carry. Together with Frances Schenkkan, I co-founded Texas Gun Sense, a 501(c)(3) providing fact-based firearms policy research. For this work, I was recognized by the Obama White House as a Champion of Change.
After my dissertation, I chose West Virginia University for postdoctoral work with Dr. John Christian — autonomous rendezvous of spacecraft with asteroids and satellites using LIDAR, with NASA GSFC’s Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office.
In 2015, I joined Intuitive Machines in Houston, where I worked on state estimation, navigation, and mission design for multiple lunar landers — Moon Express MX-1, Masten XL-1, the Axiom commercial space station, and eventually the NOVA-C lander that became Odysseus.
I later worked at Open Lunar Foundation (Director of Engineering Research and Strategy, publishing on export controls and collective invention), founded Translunar LLC for GN&C consulting, worked in climate tech at Charm Industrial, and am now at Astranis Space Technologies.
In my free time, I make art, play music, and participate in interactive theater. I train “green dot” rangers in the Black Rock Rangers, providing mental health first aid at Burning Man.