My name is Evan Seitz and I recently obtained a doctorate with distinction at Columbia University working on Computational Biophysics in the Frank Lab. I am interested in studying complex biophysical systems through a mathematically-rigorous and creative lens. My thesis work is based on a geometric machine-learning approach to study hundreds of thousands of unorganized, extremely noisy single-particle cryo-EM images of an ensemble of biomolecules. Specifically, I used manifold embedding to elucidate metabolic function in the form of a low-dimensional energy landscape and corresponding continuum of atomic structures.

Recently, I’ve joined the Simons Center for Quantitative Biology at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as a Computational Postdoctoral Fellow. The research is formed in collaboration between the Kinney and Koo labs, with the goal to bridge the divide between “black-box” deep neural network models in genomics and mechanistically interpretable biophysical models of gene regulation.

Almost a decade ago, previous to my scientific endeavors, my profession was in the arts (specifically 2D and 3D animation and design). Although my path has changed, I still love to design and find ways to incorporate those skills into my scientific work. As for me personally, I enjoy learning new things and sharing my ideas and experiences with others. In my free time, I have fun hiking, bicycling, playing sports like tennis, and team-based computer games.

This website provides an overview of my work in science and education. For more information, download my curriculum vitae