Matt assists Northwestern researchers access computational resources in a number of ways. He leverages his research and high-performance computing (HPC) experience to support and improve the Quest user experience.
Matt brings 2.5 years of experience as a PhD student consultant on the RCS team, during which time he contributed to day-to-day operations by solving tickets, processing Quest allocations, developing how-to videos, leading user workshops, and onboarding new students. As an example, Matt developed and presented a workshop to the Northwestern community that described the basics of using Nextflow on an HPC system like Quest. In his current role, he spends much of his time communicating with researchers across the university to achieve their computational goals on Quest, and continues to expand the team’s service offerings, documentation, and topic-specific workshop series.
Matt earned his PhD from Northwestern’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in 2023. His research focused on the microbial ecology of caves, which gave him hands-on experience working with large bioinformatic datasets on Quest using a variety of computational tools. Outside of work, Matt can usually be found tending to his many plants, exploring the outdoors, or serving as a sleeping platform for his cat.