Erin Wilson

About Erin Wilson

Hello! I\'m Erin, a PhD Data Scientist, with 11 years of computing/data analysis experience across industry and academia • Current role: AI & Computational Biology team at LanzaTech, a biotech company diverting carbon emissions from industrial waste into sustainable materials • About me: Approachable, enthusiastic scientist; diligent with small details; strong emotional awareness; creative visualizer of complex data ‍ • Favorite work mode: building context and bridging understanding across teams with diverse technical skillsets and perspectives • Website: erinhwilson.com [I\'m only accepting LinkedIn requests from people I\'ve already met or who send a note. If we haven\'t met yet, please introduce yourself! 🤓 about From the minutia of microbe genetics to vast industrial scale processes, I work to extract actionable insights from data and build technology for climate solutions Before pursuing a PhD in computer science, I spent 3 years working on the scientific computing team at Amyris: a synthetic biology company that engineers microbes to convert renewable feedstocks into valuable biomolecules (often as sustainable alternatives to petroleum-based products). My graduate research at UW then focused on methane-eating bacteria and using deep learning methods to discover influential DNA sequence patterns. After graduating from UW, my career has continued at LanzaTech, a biotech company engineering microbes to recycle carbon emissions from industrial waste streams. My background in genetics and computer science has allowed me to bridge between technical domains and serve as a creative data scientist on interdisciplinary teams. While my experience so far has been rooted in microbial genetics, increasingly I\'m interested in the broader landscape of solutions for mitigating climate change and fostering a more circular bioeconomy. As a very team-oriented person with a decade of experience communicating ideas between experimental biologists, commercial plant engineers, and software developers, I am especially happy on teams where I can: • continue growing my interactive data visualization skills • learn from colleagues with diverse technical backgrounds and perspectives and • contribute to impactful solutions that can scale to make the world a more sustainable place!

Experience

1. Data Scientist

   Lanzatech

   Feb 2024 — Present

   As a Data Scientist on the AI & Computational biology team, I pursue technical analysis of genetic, metagenomic, and commercial reactor datasets to support industrial fermentation operations, and organize internal communities to foster connection and learning across departments.__Technical work__* Analyze protein binding data to identify 1) where proteins bind in the genome, 2) what DNA pattern they recognize, and 3) which other genes these proteins may activate or repress (DAP-seq (DNA affinity purification sequencing) data, transcription factor binding site motif discovery, expand C. autoethanogenum gene regulatory network)* Build interactive visualizations combining fermentation variables and microbial sequencing data to assess performance of commercial reactor runs (reactor process variables (e.g. gas flow, chemical dosing), metabolite titers, metagenomic species abundance).* Designing ML modeling approach to predict the abundance of microbes in commercial reactors.__Project Management__* Create documentation mapping the detailed flow of commercial data from measurement equipment, through all intermediate human hand offs, and into LanzaTech databases.* Manage platform to create automated computational biology reports and visualizations for LanzaTech experiments and sequencing results__Community Leadership__* Instigated and fostered an internal community of practice for data visualization (sharing and receiving feedback; educational demos of tools and techniques)* Schedule wizard for AI & Computational Biology team group meetings and technical deep dives, including wrangling guest speakers

Education

• Carleton College

  Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)

  2010 — 2014

• University of Washington

  Doctor of Philosophy - PhD

  2017 — 2023

• University of Washington

  Master of Science - MS

  2017 — 2019