Laura Watkins

University of Chicago December 2021

Ph.D. Physical Chemistry (Computational)

Fellowship: Department of Energy Computational Sciences Graduate Fellowship. (Prestigious national fellowship for top computational graduate students, awarded to ~2% of applicants.)

Advisor: Gregory Voth

Washington University in St. Louis May 2015

B.A. in Chemistry

GPA: 3.89; Honors: maga cum laude

Kemper Insurance

Data Scientist II 2022-present

Builds Natural Langauage Processing (NLP) models in TensorFlow to predicte car accident characteristics based on free-form descriptions, as part of first team in the department to develop and execute NLP capabilties

Develops generalized linear models (GLM) auto insurance pricing models under strict regulatory standards, additionally expands these models for internal use to better understand customer segmentations

Contributes to team code base, including a Python class to automate the creation of excel spreadsheets with hundreds of tabs and complex figures

University of Chicago, Department of Chemistry

Graduate Researcher Fall 2015-2021

Researched mechanism of proton transport in influenza A M2 to provide insight for drug-design efforts

Designed and managed independent research projects, communicated results to non-technical experimentalists

Exploratory analysis of ~1 TB simulation data, developed new approach for studying protein changes correlated with proton position, resulting in two publications in top chemistry journal

Wrote and assisted in submission of competitve NIH grants worth ~$1 million

Teaching Assistant for General Chemistry 2015-2016

Led weekly discussion sections, laboratory experiments, and office hours for three quarters

Received Nathan Sugarman Teaching Award given to top 3 TAs

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Visiting Research Assistant Fall 2017

Used DBSCAN clustering and SVM classification to develop extension to Accelerated Molecular Dynamics methods, written as a Python module using scikit-learn

Co-chair of Chemistry Department Culture Committee 2018-2019

University of Chicago

Crafted vision and set direction for committee and planned biweekly meetings

Resulted in department Value Statement, Mentorship Guidelines, and critical policy improvements

Chemistry Department Ombudsperson 2018-2019

University of Chicago

Worked with other Ombudspersons as intermediary between students and department Chair

Organized department student mentorship program, led new initiatives, disscussed ideas with Chair

Physical Sciences Divison Social Committee Secretary 2018

University of Chicago

Comanaged approval of dozens of events, created bylaws, improved infrastructure to serve over 1000 students

Responsible for all communication with the division student body

Programming: Python 8+ years (NumPy, Pandas, TensorFlow, H2O, Matplotlib, Scikit-learn), C/C++, Bash, MPI

Machine Learning: GLMs, neural networks, NLP, SVM, clustering

Coursework: Machine Learning, Algorithms, Advanced Statistical Mechanics, High Performance Computing, Numerical Analysis for Statistics and Applied Mathematics, Stochastic Simulation, Quantum Mechanics

Kratochvil, H.T., Watkins, L.C., Mravic, M., et al. Transient Water Wires Mediate Selective Proton Transport in Designed Channel Proteins. Nature Chemistry, in press (2023) biorxiv DOI:10.1101/2022.03.28.485852

Watkins, L.C., DeGrado, W. F., Voth, G. A. Multiscale Simulation of an Influenza A M2 Channel Mutant Reveals Key Features of Its Markedly Different Proton Transport Behavior. J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2022) DOI:10.1021/jacs.1c09281

Watkins, L.C., DeGrado, W. F., Voth, G. A. Influenza A M2 Inhibitor Binding Understood through Mechanisms of Excess Proton Stabilization and Channel Dynamics J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2020) DOI:10.1021/jacs.0c06419

Watkins, L.C., Liang, R., Swanson, J. M. J., DeGrado, W. F., Voth, G. A. Proton-Induced Conformational and Hydration Dynamics in the Influenza A M2 Channel. J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2019) DOI:10.1021/jacs.9b05136

Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (2016-2020)

The Joan Shiu Chemistry Department Student Service Award, University of Chicago (2019)

The Edith Barnard Memorial Award in Chemistry for Service to Others, University of Chicago (2019)

Exceptional Poster Award FASEB Conference on Molecular Biophysics of Membranes (2018)

Nathan Sugarman Teaching Award in General Chemistry, University of Chicago (2016)

Freud Scholarship, University of Chicago (2015)

Elaine K. Bernstein Women in Science Award, University of Chicago (2015)