I received a BS in Biology and Computer Science from Loyola College in Maryland and a PhD in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology from Iowa State University (ISU). Upon graduation, I received a ISU Research Excellence award and the university-wide Zaffrano Prize for Graduate Research. Starting after graduation in 2007 I spent the first ten years of my career as a faculty member at the University of Notre Dame, and now am an Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee (Knoxville). My research interests include genome-focused bioinformatics, parallel and distributed computing, and the intersection of biological applications and second and third-gen sequencing. Nearly all of my research has been funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH). We are currently funded by USDA and DOE.