Wikipedia

I am a regular contributor to Wikipedia and have made over 31,000 edits mostly on nanotechnology, biomolecular structure, science policy, budgetary policy, and local history.

Wikipedia is the seventh most visited website on the Internet, and the largest reference work ever assembled, with 46 million articles in 288 language editions. Wikipedia's content is available under a free content license, that makes it freely available to be seen and used by anyone in the world. As the relationship between science, government, and politics has grown over the past decade, it is becoming increasingly important for scientists to educate the public about scientific issues, and to justify to the public the importance of continued government support of science research.

Following is a selection of articles that are primarily my original contribution (greater than 80%). Note that articles on Wikipedia are collaboratively written; much of my work involves copyediting and reorganizing others' prose, while my contributions have often been improved by other editors, either directly or through providing feedback to me.

 Featured articles are considered the very best of Wikipedia's articles; to be promoted to this status, articles must undergo an extensive peer review process by other Wikipedia contributors. Only 0.1% of Wikipedia articles are Featured Articles.

DNA nanotechnology (featured on Wikipedia's Main Page on August 14, 2012 and October 9, 2017)

 Good articles represent the next highest level of quality control, requiring a review by another contributor. Another 0.4% of Wikipedia articles reach this status.

Holliday junction
John Marburger
2012 United States federal budget
Drexler–Smalley debate on molecular nanotechnology
501(h) election
Caltech–MIT rivalry

 Did you know...? In addition, I have contributed to 85 articles, including those listed above and below, that have appeared in the "Did You Know..." section of the Main Page.

Health and safety hazards of nanomaterials
Titanium dioxide nanoparticle
Radioactive nanoparticle
Nucleic acid design
Yttralox
Cthulhu Regio
United States federal government shutdown of 1990
Pacheco Pass Tunnel
Glenwood Generating Station
Another Day of Sun

I was also a Campus Ambassador for the Wikipedia Global Eduacation Program, a volunteer position to instruct classes about editing Wikipedia, including content policies and how to interact with the Wikipedia community. I was the sole instructor of a two week January-term course on editing Wikipedia at Harvard Univeristy in 2013, as part of a program of student-taught noncredit mini-courses, and have given seminars at the Harvard Kennedy School as part of their Digital Communications Workshop series.

Science policy

In 2014 I was a Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Academy of Sciences, a program for current and recent graduate students to participate in the policy work of the National Academies. I worked in the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology where I contributed to a report on the industrialization of synthetic biology.

I have consistently woven coursework and extracurricular activities related to science policy into my academic career. I pursued an undergraduate minor in history and philosophy of science while at Caltech, and I have participated in graduate courses at Harvard such as "Social Issues in Biology" and "Science, Technology, Innovation, and Public Policy." I planned and presided over discussion sessions for two student groups I have been involved in at Harvard University. For the Science Policy Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, I led a discussion group on John Marburger's term as George W. Bush's science advisor. For the Philosophy of Science Society at Harvard, I led two discussion groups: one on biological determinism, and another on fringe theories about DNA structure.

Student government

My experiences in student government including involvement in each of high school, college, and graduate school. In high school I was the senior class president and school vice president, and was in charge of writing a new constitution for the class governments. At Caltech I was heavily involved in the government of my dormitory, Avery House. I joined the governing Avery Council and took charge of the process to write a new constitution; at the time Avery was preparing to house freshmen for the first time, following a campus-wide controversy that questioned the place of Avery House in the long-established House system at Caltech. In graduate school I started a Resident Council at my residence hall.

History of the Avery Constitution, which I was in charge of authoring at Caltech.

North Shore constitutions, from my old website for my high school's student government.