Ethan is a biophysical chemist developing all-optical methods for discovery of fundamental biological phenomena across molecular, mesoscopic, cellular, and systems-wide scales. During his PhD, Ethan used sum frequency generation spectroscopy and discovered that proteins organize water molecules into chiral structures, revealing new perspectives on why life needs water and how water helped life to begin.
As a Schmidt Science Fellow, Ethan will pivot to neuroscience to develop high-precision imaging technologies for understanding the dynamic interplay of electrical and genetic information in the brain. In his first year, Ethan worked alongside Professor Adam E. Cohen at Harvard University to image and modulate neuron activity and function. Ethan is now working with Professor Zhijian “James” Chen at UT Southwestern Medical Center to image immune responses in the brain associated with aging and neurodegeneration.
Ethan hopes to reveal how the living brain processes chemical and electrical signals to help cure neurodegenerative diseases by creating high-precision imaging technologies.