Many pest populations are regulated by density-dependent factors. One example of this is in the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, where larval survival is affected by intraspecific larval competition. 
Gene drives are any natural or artificial mechanism of spreading a genetic ‘cargo’ into a target population. Gene drives are introduced by the release of genetically modified (transgenic) organisms carrying the cargo gene. These genes almost always inflict a fitness cost on transgenic organisms, underlying a balance between the spread of the gene drive and the cost it imposes. 
Dr. Max Scott’s lab at NC State is developing gene drives in the invasive fruit fly, Drosophila suzukii, better known as spotted wing Drosophila or SWD. 
During the summer of 2023, I collected nearly 1000 Aedes albopictus mosquitoes from 31 different residential locations across the city of Raleigh with the goal of determining the present extent of insecticide resistance. 
A collaborative project with the goal of mathematically modeling the opioid epidemic at the state level and using the results to inform directions of control.
This paper is about the number 1. The number 2 is left for future work.
This paper is about the number 2. The number 3 is left for future work.
This paper is about the number 3. The number 4 is left for future work.
For this project, with the help of Prof. David Hiebeler at the University of Maine, we studied the behavior of a theoretical population of organisms with landscape-dependent fecundity and mortality (exactly which one was varied for different experiments). The poster I prepared for this conference is shown below.
I presented the research I did at the Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute at multiple venues, including at the institute itself, the 2018 annual SACNAS conference in San Antonio, TX, and at the 2018 NIMBIoS Undergraduate Research Conference in Knoxville, Tennessee.
I presented some of my personal research of a predator-prey system with parasitic infection at e-BEER in 2020. The poster I made is attached below. Originally the project started out as a fun side project in NetLogo, with the goal of illustrating existence between a predator (represented by sheep), prey (the grass of a pasture), and a parasite ( H. contortus). Eventually it grew to encompass a class project, and I was so interested in the results that I shared them at e-BEER.
I gave a talk virtually at TAGMaC 2020 about the research I did as an undergraduate mathematically modeling the opioid epidemic in Maine. Since then, the project has become more ambitious in studying a general model of the opioid epidemic (for any state) using Maine as a case study. This research was funded in large part by the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center at the University of Maine.
I gave talks on my gene drive research (how genetic load is modulated by density-dependence) at SMB 2021, SIAM DS21, and as a poster presentation at the GGI 4th annual retreat (see below). A paper summarizing these results will be submitted in the coming months.
I gave a talk at MathFest as part of a contributed paper session on using modeling in differential equations courses. In this talk, I highlighted my own experience using these methods in my mentorship activities, as well as emphasizing the use of computational tools (e.g. NetLogo) to demonstrate important concepts.
Undergraduate course, University 1, Department, 2014
This is a description of a teaching experience. You can use markdown like any other post.
Workshop, University 1, Department, 2015
This is a description of a teaching experience. You can use markdown like any other post.