Hello! I am a plant biotechnologist, humanist, and optimist - the second two lead me to the first. I am married to Haoxing Du, we currently live in California.

I am deeply inspired by effective altruism, which aims to use engineering-style thinking to do as much good as possible. This moral inclination led me to choose the field of plant biotechnology as a lever for improving global human welfare, because plants constitute the vast majority of the human food supply and nutritional deficiencies have always been among humanity’s top problems (but might not be in another few decades!)

Outside of my career, I enjoy rock climbing, paragliding, wingfoiling, backpacking, and making things.

You can contact me at