Upcoming Events

If you'd like to invite me to speak at your event, get in touch. Please first ensure that your event has a diverse lineup. Thanks!

Past Events

• STUDIO for Creative Inquiry (Workshop)
  p5.js Contributor's Conference
  Pittsburgh, PA · Aug 2019

• Kent Place School Ethics Institute (Workshop)
  Creative Coding & Ethics
  Princeton, NJ · Jul 2019

• W.E.B. Du Bois Scholars Institute (Workshop)
  Group Theory And Hair Braiding (led by Bernat Guillen Pegueroles & Sharon De La Cruz)
  Princeton, NJ · Apr 2019

• Princeton Public Library (Workshop)
  Processing Day Workshop: Art + Code: Make a Greeting Card with p5.js
  Princeton, NJ · Feb 2019

• Music Education at Spotify, NYC (Talk)
  Tinkering at the Boundary of Physics and Music
  New York, NY · Oct 2018

• Maker Faire (Workshop)
  Using Your Senses Makes Sense
  New York, NY · Sep 2018

• Princeton University Materials Academy (Workshop)
  Two week workshop on Wearable Technology for Princeton and Trenton High School Students
  Princeton, NJ · Jul 2018

• Interaction Design and Children (IDC) Conference (Workshop)
  Paper Piano: Making Circuits with Everyday Things
  Trondheim, Norway · Jun 2018

• Annual Crump Physics Lecture, St. Andrews School, Delaware (Talk)
  Wandering into Puzzles: Being Curious About Everyday Things
  Middletown, DE · Feb 2018

• St. Andrews School, Delaware (Workshop)
  Paper Piano: Making Circuits With Everyday Things
  Middletown, DE · Feb 2018

• New York Public Library (Mid-Manhattan Branch) (Talk)
  Why? What makes us curious? Mario Livio in conversation with Aatish Bhatia
  New York · Jan 2018

• Maker Faire (Workshop)
  Making Circuits with Everyday Things
  New York, NY · Sep 2017

• TED-Ed Weekend (Workshop)
  Making circuits with everyday things
  New York, NY · Jun 2017

• Princeton University (Workshop)
  Creative Art of Structural and Civil Engineering
  Princeton, NJ · Jun 2017

• W.E.B. Du Bois Scholars Institute (Workshop)
  Making circuits with everyday things
  Princeton, NJ · May 2017

• Parsons, The New School (Panel)
  Talking about Seeing Symposium
  New York, NY · Dec 2016

• Parsons, The New School (Talk)
  Mundane Beauty | Observational Practices and the Everyday
  New York, NY · Dec 2016

• Rutgers University Physics Colloquium (Talk)
  The Physics of Everyday Life
  New Brunswick, NJ · Dec 2016

• American Society of Engineering Education (Talk)
  Engaging Students With The Creative Art of Civil Engineering
  New Orleans, LA · Jun 2016

• UMass-Amherst (Workshop)
  Creative Art of Structural and Civil Engineering
  Amherst, MA · Jun 2016

• Princeton University (Panel)
  The Art of Science Communication
  Princeton, NJ · Mar 2016

• Princeton University (Panel)
  Beyond the Podium: Educators on Social Media
  Princeton, NJ · Dec 2015

• American Museum of Natural History (Panel)
  STEM Career Panelist, NYC Science Research Mentoring Consortium
  New York, NY · Nov 2015

• Princeton University (Talk)
  Making Ideas Stick: Tips on being a more effective communicator
  Princeton, NJ · Jun 2015

• Princeton University (Workshop)
  Creative Art of Structural and Civil Engineering
  Princeton, NJ · Jun 2015

• Princeton Pi Day & NJ Chapter American Association of Physics Teachers (Talk)
  Finding the Hidden Pi: a Physics Demonstration Show
  Princeton, NJ · Mar 2015

• American Museum of Natural History (Panel)
  STEM Career Panelist, NYC Science Research Mentoring Consortium
  New York, NY · Nov 2014

• Harvard University (Panel)
  Active Learning: From Evaluation to Practice.
  Boston, MA · Nov 2014

• American Physical Society April Meeting (Workshop)
  Undergraduate Physics Teaching
  Savannah, GA · Apr 2014

• Invited Lecture: American Physical Society (Talk)
  Can we build a more efficient airplane? Using applied questions to teach physics
  Savannah, GA · Apr 2014

• Science Online (Talk)
  How Science Education Can Improve Science Communication.
  Raleigh, NC · Feb 2014

Skills

Writing

I specialize in explaining complex ideas in simple ways. In addition to writing Empirical Zeal, an award-winning science blog exploring the curious patterns and hidden harmonies of daily life, I have been published in online venues including WIRED, Nautilus, Minute Physics and TED-Ed. In 2012, I was published in print in The Best Online Science Writing 2012 (Scientific American Books), and awarded first prize in the 3 Quarks Daily Online Science Writing Prize. My writing and videos have collectively been accessed many millions of times.

Expanding Access to Science and Technology

At Princeton, I worked on bringing science and engineering to a wider audience by co-teaching courses, collaborating with faculty on developing courses, mentoring students, organizing talks and workshops, and collaborating widely to get more people curious and excited about science.

Teaching

I helped create and co-taught 'Transformations in Engineering and the Arts', where students of all majors use engineering to create art. Along with Dan Trueman, I taught 'Musical Instruments, Sound, Perception, and Creativity' a lab course in the Music department exploring the fundamentals of music, sound, and perception. While at Rutgers University, I taught physics to nearly 600 undergraduates, developed a physics course about meeting our energy needs through renewables, taught an afterschool class in space science to middle school students in Newark, NJ, and taught high school students a summer course on building two-wheeled self-balancing robots.

Coding

I use code to create interactive explainers, to make sense of data, and to play with patterns. I’m fluent with Javascript, HTML and CSS, well-versed in Python and Processing, and have a basic knowledge of C++ and R. During my Ph.D., I wrote code and implemented data analyses for bioinformatics projects published in PLOS One, G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics, and the Journal of Neuroscience.

Research

I'm a physicist by training. My Ph.D. research addressed problems in biological evolution and quantitative genetics, and has been cited over 100 times. Prior to this, I spent two years of graduate school studying particle physics and quantum field theory. Following my Ph.D., my research at Princeton University has focused on engineering education.