What am I doing?

Great question.

I just recently finished my PhD at UC Berkeley. I investigated privacy-preserving computation and it's application to nuclear safeguards. Our research group took secure multiparty computation algorithms and used them to try detecting anomalies in time series datasets without exposing the underlying data. Eventually, we hope to bring these algorithms to international nuclear inspectors. Our goal is to encourage international parties to commit to more rigorous nuclear inspections by assuaging concerns about data sharing.

Besides nuclear engineering and privacy preserving computation, I'm also super interested in open source and reproducible software engineering, teaching, web-design, small-scale app development, and sustainable energy. I also do a lot of running.

How did I get here?

I received my bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. While I was there, I had the opportunity to build my major around the iCons program. The program brought together an interdisciplinary cohort of scientists and engineers and trained us to think about solving real-world problems facing renewable energy. It also instilled an understanding that a good scientist cannot just do good science, but also must be able to effectively communicate good science.

From the iCons program, I bounced around trying a number of different types of research: polymer science to build plastic solar cells, nuclear physics with hopes that I could contribute to nuclear fusion research, and finally large-scale modeling and simulation of nuclear fission reactors on supercomputers. Each experience taught me something new, but never really clicked. Sometimes I wonder if the progress was too small and incremental, or if I just lost faith that the projects would have the impact I'd envisioned. Either way, they never captured my attention in the way I felt PhD research should.

When I stumbled upon the problem of bringing privacy-preserving computation to nuclear safeguards, the glove fit; blending cryptography and nuclear engineering piqued my interest. In a rapidly changing world, it allowed me to tackle problems in nuclear security and data privacy. Looking at global history in the late 20th century, nearly ever major decision was influenced by nuclear security implications. Looking ahead at the 21st century, I believe that harnessing the sheer amounts of data available to nations, companies, and individuals is the next frontier—but it must be done responsibly, in a way that doesn't compromise the privacy of people and organizations. I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be than exploring the intersection of these two fields.