Samuel is a graduate student in the Department of Molecular Biology. He received his B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Appalachian State University, where his undergraduate research in the Bleich Lab focused on water channels in cocultured E. coli–E. faecalis biofilms in the context of IBD. He then joined the Rosenthal Lab at UNC, investigating phenotypic heterogeneity in pathogenic bacteria and adapting their bacterial scRNA-seq technique ProBac-seq to the Illumina 3′ platform (formerly Fluent Biosciences' PIPseq). His research now uses quantitative proteomics to investigate bacterial adaptation to starvation and stress. Outside of the lab he is a documentary photographer, rock climber, and gardener.