Skills
Tools I use, and what I use them for.
A working catalogue of laboratory techniques, computational workflows, and software stacks — paired with the actual problems I've reached for them to solve. Updated as the toolkit grows.
Molecular biology
- DNA / RNA / plasmid extraction Kit-based, CTAB, and metagenomic-grade protocols to obtain HMW DNA from complex matrices
- PCR / qPCR Pathogen detection, primer design, gene expression quantification
- Gel electrophoresis Routine fragment verification
- Bioanalyzer / Femtopulse Routine fragment verification (size and length)
- Microbial culturing Aseptic technique across fungal and bacterial systems
Sequencing & bioinformatics
- Oxford Nanopore (MinION / MinKNOW) Whole-genome long-read sequencing of Fusarium isolates
- Sanger sequencing (DNA amplicon) Targeted gene confirmation
- BLAST · Geneious Prime Sequence alignment, gene annotation, primer design
- Porechop · NanoFilt · BioConda Long-read QC and pipeline assembly
- antiSMASH Secondary metabolite cluster prediction in fungal genomes
- Bash · HPC clusters High-throughput pipelines on cloud compute
Communication & leadership
- Scientific writing Eight peer-reviewed publications, three more in progress
- Public speaking APS, MSA, ISC, ISS Graduation Speaker, Wisconsin Agribusiness Classic, USAID series
- Mentoring Undergraduate researchers, MANRRS members, international students
- Cross-functional leadership Chair, Plant Pathology Graduate Council; President, UW–Madison MANRRS
Field disease scouting & rating
- Above-ground disease rating — foliar Visual assessment and quantification of foliar diseases (tar spot, northern corn leaf blight, gray leaf spot) in corn and soybean using standard area diagrams
- Above-ground disease rating — stalk & ear Gibberella and Diplodia ear rot severity rating; stalk rot assessment via push and pinch tests; lodging percentage quantification across plots
- Below-ground disease scouting Root disease assessment in corn and soybean — crown rot, root rot complexes, nodulation quality in soybean; core sampling and washing protocols
- Plot management & trial execution Management of replicated field trials from planting to harvest — plot marking, treatment application, stand counts, growth stage staging (V/R scale for corn, Fehr-Caviness for soybean)
- Disease severity data collection Systematic scouting protocols, APS-standard rating scales, GPS-referenced sampling grids, data entry into REDCap and custom spreadsheet templates
Imaging & analytical chemistry
- Microscopy Brightfield, fluorescence, confocal — Zeiss LSM 710, Axiozoom, Olympus DP73
- LC-MS/MS · HPLC Mycotoxin and metabolite quantification
- GC-MS/MS Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) detection from plant and microbial sources
Statistics & modeling
- R Linear mixed models, ANOVA, multivariate analysis, ggplot2 visualization
- SAS Field-trial analysis, agricultural research workflows
- Python Bioinformatics scripting, pandas, scikit-learn, data wrangling
- Power BI · QGIS Spatial analysis, mapping and dashboards
- ImageJ Image analysis for disease severity, colony counting, pixel thresholds
Software & development
- Git · GitHub · VS Code Version control and reproducible research
- Astro · TypeScript · Tailwind This site, and forthcoming web products
- Claude Code · Cursor · Grok AI-assisted development for vibe-coded prototypes
- Cloudflare Pages / Workers Edge hosting and serverless APIs