Machine learning researcher. Chess grandmaster. Powerlifter.
I am a research scientist at Ivo, where I work on post-training large language models for knowledge-intensive domains like law. Outside work I compete in professional chess tournaments and in powerlifting, and I write and speak about both.
Post-training language models for knowledge-intensive work
Research scientist at Ivo since 2026. Previously at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, working on graph learning and foundation models. PhD in computer science, University of Michigan, 2020.
Publications and talksGrandmaster, earned as an adult with a full-time research job
Active tournament player, Chess Life contributor, and available for lectures, exhibitions and lessons.
Chess and bookingNational-level raw powerlifter and national referee
Multiple-time USA Powerlifting open nationals qualifier. Third at the 2025 California state championship by bodyweight-adjusted score.
PowerliftingSelected research
At Ivo I work on supervised fine-tuning, prompt optimization and other post-training methods for knowledge-intensive domains such as law. Before that, at LLNL, I worked on graph neural networks for molecular modeling, scientific image segmentation and software analysis, and on foundation models for bioinformatics. My PhD work used node and graph embeddings for problems like network alignment and role discovery.
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ICLR 2024
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NeurIPS 2022
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NeurIPS 2020
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ICDM 2019Distribution of Node Embeddings as Multiresolution Features for Graphs Best Student Paper
Music and cooking
I also play a fair amount of music. I own and play a variety of instruments, of which one of my favorites is the hammered dulcimer. I've played it in a couple of weddings and other assorted events, and you can hear a bit of it in an EP some of my talented college friends put together. At last count I've performed or recorded on five musical instruments.
I enjoy cooking and baking, mainly because I prefer hobbies to chores and when I reached adulthood I realized that feeding myself would have to become one of those two things.