Smithtown, New York, United States
My software development career began 20 years ago as a freelance developer in high school despite choosing to follow a formal education pathway in chemistry. I graduated from the Stony Brook University doctoral program in chemistry in 2013, and became an educator shortly thereafter. As an educator during the pandemic, my passion deepened considerable for software development seeing how my skills were instrumental in the sudden transition to online learning. I returned to the classroom as a student in May of 2021 to complete a Bachelors in Computer Science in July 2022. Since then I have completed multiple enrichment courses to stay current. I am most excited about the promise of AI/ML applications. My favorite programming languages to work in are PHP, Java, JavaScript, and Python. I have contributed to the Lexicon project (open source) on GitHub, and have multiple ongoing projects to address the unique requirements of non-profit groups. One of my favorite areas of research is Cheminformatics, because it brings together my training as a chemist and software engineer. Searching chemical structures (graphs) is a computationally intensive task and requires efficient algorithms to search large databases of compounds. Recent advances in FPGA and GPU technology has made parallel computing more accessible to the everyday user, so I am exploring how these tools can advance the area of Cheminformatics. One of my most recent projects has been to serve as a Lead Software Architect for Catholic Engaged Encounter. My responsibilities include managing an enterprise level Azure-based LAMP stack with Google Workspace integration. Troubleshooting, designing, developing, and educating affiliate community users are all par for the course.
As a self-motivated individual, I formed a freelance web development company (Prime Software Networks) in 2010 which recently evolved into an S-Corp (Trinity DevSoft) in 2021. My company continues to do freelance web development for small businesses and has branched out into open source and proprietary software for enriching the WordPress ecosystem. I have extensive experience with full stack development including Linux administration, HTML, CSS, JavaScript (jQuery & NodeJS), Java, Docker, SQL, PHP, and related frameworks.
Adviser: Dr. Nancy S. Goroff My chief responsibility throughout my graduate career has been preparing, characterizing, and studying the reactivity of poly(diiododiacetylene) (PIDA). PIDA serves as a precursor to new carbon rich materials that have potential as supports for catalysis, environmental remediation, solar cells, and organic electronic devices. Studying PIDA required development of a model system due to the polymers poor solubility and its shock explosive behavior. The complete elimination of iodine from PIDA was achieved under mild conditions and without detonation. The product was amorphous graphite-like carbon with inclusion of various heteroatoms. My research experience helped me gained extensive experience in NMR, Raman spectroscopy, X-Ray crystallography, and SEM/EDS. As a crystallographer, I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to collaborate with groups outside my area of chemistry. My crystallography skills were employed by groups working on organometallic catalysis and drug design. These opportunities helped me gain insight as to how molecular structure is important to different areas of chemistry. As a research assistant I was also responsible for mentoring 4 undergraduate students and training 2 first year graduate students. This experience taught me how to effectively communicate science using a hands-on approach. It also exposed me to students of diverse backgrounds and helped me grow as an individual.
As a chemistry intern I was responsible for performing and monitoring quality control on chemistry analyzers. I also loaded patient sample on the analyzers to generate a report to be reviewed by experienced operators.
Adviser: Dr. Stewart Karp As an undergraduate researcher I worked on developing a method for HPLC to detect acrylamide, a carcinogenic substance found in fried foods. My research focused on using both UV and electrochemical detectors. HPLC/UV detection of acrylamide was successful but quantification was not reliable due to poor separation of the organic compounds in the various foods tested. As an alterantive, HPLC coupled to an electrochemical detector was investigated. Electrochemical detection required understanding the redox chemistry of acrylamide as a first step. This afforded me the opportunity to use cylic voltammetry to investigate the electrochemistry of acrylamide.