Biography

My research is driven by several overarching questions: What is the nature of complex living systems, how do they emerge and evolve, how do feedbacks drive coupled dynamics across levels of biological organization, and how does this shape the structure and long-term trajectory of the biosphere?

I started pursuing earlier iterations of these questions in the field of astrochemistry during my graduate training. My goal was to understand whether the networks of organic chemistry occurring during star-formation could provide general insights into how complex chemical organization emerges, and particularly how life emerged on Earth.

To deepen my understanding of life’s origins, I transitioned into biology after my PhD to study the evolution of metabolism. While my initial aim was to trace metabolism back to its prebiotic roots, it quickly became clear that metabolism provides a powerful, unifying lens for studying life across all levels of organization—from molecules to cells, ecosystems, and Earth’s biogeochemical cycles.

This realization has defined my research path ever since, leading me to synthesize perspectives and/or approaches from evolutionary theory, systems biology, microbial physiology and ecology, oceanography, geochemistry, and Earth history. While I have mostly worked on marine systems, going forward I also plan to start translating the approaches and perspectives I have developed to study human health and disease.

My formal training includes a MSc in chemistry from the University of Amsterdam, a PhD in chemical physics from Caltech, and postdoctoral positions at the Santa Fe Institute and MIT.

CV (updated 12/25)