Drew Ehrlich’s Homepage

My name is Drew, and I’m a PhD candidate studying the design of scientific instruments for neuroscience in the Department of Computational Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz as a part of the ASSIST Lab under the supervision of Professor Sri Kurniawan. I’m also a Graduate Researcher for the Braingeneers, a bioengineering research collective that is part of the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute where my work on developing and designing microscopy instruments is supervised by Professor Mircea Teodorescu.

I’m a multi-disciplinary engineer who specializes in prototyping, electronics, computer aided design, and software development for the design of laboratory equipment (like microscopes!). My research as a graduate student has mainly focused on two topics: creating novel open source scientific hardware, and developing interactive science education tools that focus on communicating advanced research topics in a more approachable way.

Recently, I published a pre-print of my longest running project to date, a high-throughput fluorescence microscope that can be operated for extended periods inside of a cell culture incubator. I’ve used variants of this microscopy system to contribute to papers about growing biology without an incubator, using microscopy to support education initiatives for underrepresented students, and the design of microfluidic inserts for simulating the growth of neurons in the developing brain. I’ve also worked with microscopy systems that operate outside of the visible light spectrum through my internship with Carl Zeiss’ Advanced Development and Design unit in their X-Ray Microscopy division this past summer.

I am finishing my PhD in the coming months, and I am looking to continue my work with microscopy tools, either as a postdoctoral scholar or through working in research and development or applications in industry, whether that’s close to home or in another part of the world entirely. My full body of work to date can be seen on my Google Scholar page.

Previously, I completed my MS in Computational Media at UCSC where I was a part of Professor Angus Forbes’ Creative Coding Lab and was mentored by Dr. Oskar Elek. Before that I completed my BS in Computer Science and BA in Film and Digital Media at UCSC in 2021. My thesis for both my bachelors and masters degrees both centered on creating 3D printed representations of Physarum Polycephalum slime mold simulations.