I am a graduate student pursuing my PhD at Washington University in St. Louis. I am studying with Shiming Chen in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.
Before starting graduate school I had already gained a great appreciation for vision research and the ARVO community. I spent 2 years with Dr. Mark Petrash studying diabetic cataract and 1 year as an IRTA fellow at NIH with Dr. Anand Swaroop utilizing the newest genomic techniques to study AMD. I presented my work from both of these at the ARVO annual meetings. More recently I had the incredible opportunity to participate in the 2014 Fundamental Issues in Vision Research (FIVR) course in Woods Hole, MA.
Overall, I have been impressed by the collegiality of the vision research community and am excited to continue my involvement throughout my career.