Jacob Baudin

Year Entered MSTP: 2012

Prior Education

College:	University of Washington
Degree:	BS/BA, Neurobiology, Philosophy, Biochemistry, Biology

Student Information

Mentor(s)	Rieke, Fred PhD Faculty Website »
Primary Department	Physiology

Doctorate Information

Dissertation Title:	Cone Photoreceptor Heterogeneity in the Primate Retina
Defense Date:	2018-05-29

Current Positions

Title:	Software Engineer
Location:	Google, Seattle, WA

Publications »

Current Research

Physiology of Color Vision

Jacob Baudin completed his dissertation research under the mentorship of HHMI Investigator, Dr. Fred Rieke, in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics. Jacob studied the neuroscience of color vision. Employing a multidisciplinary experimental and computational approach, Jacob discovered unexpected heterogeneity among distinct cone cell types in the primate retina, extending throughout all levels of spatial, spectral, and neurocortical organization. Jacob has additionally distinguished himself due to an enduring interest in computational science. Concurrent with, yet independently from, his PhD research, Jacob worked with Dr. Shwetak Patel, a Professor in the UW School of Computer Science & Engineering, to apply machine learning to develop a smartphone app to measure pupillary light responses, for traumatic brain injury diagnosis. This passion led him to perform a summer internship culminating in a one-year position as a software engineer at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, in-between the conclusion of his dissertation research and before re-entering clerkships. At Google, Jacob developed medical diagnostic machine learning algorithms. While performing clerkships, Jacob has collaborated with MSTP alumnus and surgical resident, Dr. Katie Liu, to create a smartphone game controlled by skin electrodes recording muscle activity, in order to speed recovery from nerve injuries. The UW MSTP has a long history of MSTP students performing computational internships. In fact, UW MSTP alum, Bud Tribble, led development of the Apple Macintosh operating system while a student in our program; Dr. Tribble is a legendary senior executive at Apple and continues to develop health enabling technologies, such as the EKG features of the Apple Watch.