CV

Education

Graduate:

University of California, Irvine (UCI) – Mobley Lab
  • Ph.D. Candidate – Pharmaceutical Sciences
    • Advanced to Candidacy June 2019Expected Defense Date: Spring 2021

September 2016 – Present

Undergraduate

Claremont McKenna College (CMC)
  • B.A. – Physics
 Sept. 2011 – May 2015

Publications

Peer reviewed:

Wych, David C., et al. “Liquid-like and rigid-body motions in molecular-dynamics simulations of a crystalline protein.” Structural Dynamics 6.6 (2019): 064704.

  • Selected as a Feature Article by the EditorsHighlighted by the AIP in the SciLight newsletter

Published: December 2019

Citations: 2 (Google Scholar)

Not peer reviewed:

Wych, David C., Yun “Lyna” Luo. “Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study of PTEN Binding to Calpain Isoforms.” CMC Senior Thesis.

May 2015

Presentations

Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Protein Crystals for Water Structure Prediction and Forcefield Development

  • CCS-3 Post-doc/Student/Early Career Seminar Series

August 2020

Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Protein X-Ray Crystallographic Diffuse Scattering
  • American Crystallographic Association (ACA) Annual Meeting 2019

July 2019

Non-negative Matrix Factorization for Structural Dynamics Clustering of Electron Density Trajectories

  • AML Summer Fellowship Presentation Series

August 2018

Research Experience

Graduate Student Researcher
  • University of California, Irvine (UCI)Advisor: David L. MobleyCrystalline MD simulations, crystallography, and diffuse scattering

December 2016 – Present

CNLS Virtual Summer Internship Program
  • LANL (Mentor: Michael E. Wall)Crystalline MD simulation for electron density dynamical modeling and diffuse scattering

June 2020 – August 2020

Graduate Student Assistant (GSA)
  • LANL (Mentor: Michael E. Wall)Crystalline MD simulations, disorder modelling, and diffuse scattering
January 2019 – August 2019
Applied Machine Learning (AML) Summer Fellow
  • LANL (Mentor: Michael E. Wall)Crystalline MD simulations, diffuse scattering, Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF)

June 2018 – August 2018

Undergraduate Student Researcher
  • CMC / Western University of Health SciencesAdvisors:  Yun (Lyna) Luo, and Paul S. NerenbergSolution MD simulations of small-molecule liquids and Calpain isoforms with PTEN peptide bound

October 2014 – July 2015

REU Summer Researcher
  • Columbia University – Astrochemistry (Savin Lab)Maintenance and simulation of an ultra-high vacuum apparatus to study “primordial” organic chemistry

June 2014 – August 2014

Honors and Awards

Fellowship to attend the 2018 Applied Machine Learning Summer SchoolAugust 2018
Fellowship to attend the 2020 CNLS Summer Program at LANL June 2020

Instruction

Instructor – Physical Biochemistry (PHRMSCI 171)
  • Full curriculum, exam, and lecture stack rewriteIn Person and Virtual Instruction

Fall 2019 and 2020

Research Focus, Interest Areas, and Relevant Skills

  • Primarily focused on the study of diffuse (continuous) scattering in protein X-ray crystallography, the non-Bragg scattering associated with correlated dynamics.
  • More recently focused on electron density analysis using crystalline MD simulations for prediction of water structure and MD forcefield improvement.
  • Experienced in MD simulation using GROMACS, AMBER, and auxiliary software: Python, MdTraj, OpenEye tools, cctbx, DIALS, Lunus, Phenix, C, shell scripting, and OpenMP/MPI high-performance parallel computing. 
  • Cooking, music, mathematics, dog training, and Greek mythology for fun.