Briefly, tell us about your background and career up to this point?
I started with an undergrad degree in physics, then moved into materials science for my PhD, and my first postdoc, which I did at Los Alamos. I was studying strongly correlated electron systems, materials in which the phase of the material is delicately balanced between a number of different states. While it may seem very different to what I do now, puzzling out how complexity arises from interactions makes the work very similar.
I then moved into biological imaging, starting work with Rainer Heintzmann at King’s and getting a Royal Society University Research Fellowship a few years later. My group has worked on fundamental understanding of microscopy techniques and applying novel technologies to mechanobiology problems.
What advice would you give to your 18-year-old self?
You think that computer programming isn’t going to be a big deal. You are incorrect.
Do you have any current projects that you’d like to tell us about?
We are working on a method to allow 3D fluorescence microscopy datasets to be automatically analysed to characterise the structure and heterogeneity (diversity) present, without segmenting the data or modelling it as a particular structure. I think the data we collect has a lot more potential than we currently make use of.
Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
I hope that by combining image analysis with quantitative modelling in a more seamless process we can gain understanding of how the details of structure and interactions in large, complex systems give rise to collective effects.
What are you most looking forward to this year?
Getting together with everyone at Christmas and finding how many potatoes a human body can consume.
Who inspires you most and why?
I was really lucky over the last decade to discuss microscopy with Brad Amos, one of the great figures of the field.
What is your favourite thing about working at King’s?
Lenny the campus cat.
Quick-fire round
Favourite season: Autumn. Kicking up leaves!
Favourite book: The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
Netflix recommendation: 3% - Brazilian dystopian thriller, what more could you ask for?
Coffee order: Triple shot black americano