Teaching

Current Courses (Spring 2026)

• Physics for Biologists (EE BIOL 15) [Course Website]
  Thinking like a physicist about biological questions

  Designed for life science students, this course connects the fundamental principles of physics to the complex systems of biology. Rather than focusing on formula memorization, students are invited to develop a ‘quantitative intuition’ by mastering dimensional analysis and scaling arguments. The curriculum is organized into four thematic parts: (1) Scaling and Form, where we examine how physical laws constrain biological shape and function across orders of magnitude; (2) Energy & Metabolism, treating organisms as open thermodynamic systems constrained by bioenergetics; (3) Information & Entropy, linking thermodynamics to sensory perception and the physical costs of biological computation; and (4) The Physical Limits of Life, investigating the boundaries of life from the hydrodynamics of life at low Reynolds numbers to the fundamental limits imposed by relativity and quantum mechanics.

• Practical Computing for Evolutionary Biologists and Ecologists (EE BIOL C177/C234) [Course Website]
  Essential computing skills for modern ecologists and evolutionary biologists

  This guided, hands-on course builds computational literacy step by step—no prior programming experience required. We focus on modern programming in R using the tidyverse ecosystem to master data wrangling and craft publication-ready figures. The curriculum emphasizes reproducible research with Quarto and integrates AI-assisted workflows, teaching students how to leverage technology effectively to accelerate their research. The goal: become confident, efficient researchers who harness modern computational tools as powerful allies.

Past Courses