My interests are broadly in mathematical biology and mathematics for social good.
At WPI, I am advised by Dr. Francesca Bernardi, alongside whom I am exploring the behavior of the bacteria Acholeplasma laidlawii (A. laidlawii) in microfilters, particularly in the context of biopharmaceutical technologies.
A. laidlawii belongs to the bacterial genera Acholeplasma, which is related to the genera Mycoplasma. A main distinguishing feature hinges on their cholesterol requirements. Other differences between Acholeplasma and Mycoplasma have been acknowledged, some of them practical, including the greater ease of culturing and handling Acholeplasma bacteria compared to Mycoplasma bacteria and the lower biosafety requirements for facilities.
From research to clinical development and production, Mycoplasma are well-recognized and widespread contaminants in biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Their successful proliferation despite the ultrafiltration performed to eliminate them has been, in hypotheses tested via lab experimentation, attributed in part to the flexibility of the cell walls of Mycoplasma.
Unlike sterilizing-grade filters at slightly larger sizes, no standard industry test parameters exist to classify 0.1 micrometer-rated filters, the size required to filter Mycoplasma that can otherwise penetrate 0.2 and 0.22 micrometer-rated filters (Folmsbee et al., 2014). However, A. laidlawii has been proposed to fulfill this role.
Non-Mathematics Research
U.S. Foster Care and Adoption Reviews
National Council For Adoption | Alexandria, VA, USA
August 2021 – August 2023
I conducted systematic reviews, in accordance with PRISMA guidelines, that investigated the available literature on foster care permanency outcomes and U.S. policy impacts. This research resulted in publications in Children and Youth Services Review and Adoption Quarterly.
Presidential Just War Rhetoric
Regent University | Virginia Beach, VA, USA
June 2021 – July 2022
Drawing from documents made available through The American Presidency Project of University of California, Santa Barbara, this research is expected to culminate in a volume that will demonstrate the active just war language in speeches from Washington to the United States’ modern-day presidents.
I was responsible for the development and execution of a Python web scraping tool to gather relevant material from the hundreds of presidential addresses for all of the American presidents who have completed their terms, as well as the compiling of a massive database of quotes for use by the leading researchers.
Adoption By the Numbers
National Council For Adoption | Alexandria, VA, USA
July 2021 – March 2022
National Council For Adoption periodically publishes a comprehensive report of U.S. adoption statistics. With continued commitment to this work, in spring 2021 NCFA convened a research team consisting of members from NCFA and Center for the Advancement of Children, Youth, and Families at The Catholic University of America.
This National Council For Adoption (NCFA) research report presents data on the number of adoptions in the United States in 2019 and 2020. Data on the number of private domestic adoptions, intercountry adoptions, and adoptions from foster care are compiled in aggregate as well as at the state level, thus providing an estimate of the total number of adoptions in the United States.I worked with Drs. Eun Koh and Laura Daughtery of Catholic University and Ryan Hanlon of NCFA to collect and analyze data for Adoption by the Numbers. The report is available here.
Undergraduate Mathematics Research
Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU)
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology | Terra Hauta, IN, USA
June 1, 2020 – July 24, 2020
I worked under Dr. Wayne Tarrant, Associate Professor of Mathematics at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and alongside Rose-Hulman student Azaria Wagner on an applied mathematics/data analytics project on the impact of agricultural development on economic growth and human development as measured by the Human Development Index from the United Nations.
We collected data on 27 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa from the World Bank, the International Food Policy Research Institute, and the United Nations Development Program database. Initial data exploration and data frame organization was completed in Microsoft Excel and Python. We completed statistical tests (e.g., Im-Pesaran-Shin, Pearson’s chi-squared) and ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions with least squares dummy variable (LSDV) estimators in R.
Our analyses found that while agricultural growth has a statistically significant effect on human development, it is small (elasticity is less than 0.01). Life expectancy (health) and education present significant and more impactful effects – over 0.63 for life expectancy, 0.11 for expected years of schooling, and 0.24 for mean years of schooling. That is, we would expect a 0.63% increase in human development given a 1% increase in life expectancy, et cetera. These elasticities suggest that human development may be best supported through health and education improvements rather than economy boosts.
The project report is available here. Paxton Coley, student writer at Regent University, reported on the experience here.