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About me

·3 mins
Here is a little about myself. 😍

My name is Sam Cotten and I am originally from Santa Monica, California. The current iteration of my passion for data has me working as a Data Engineer at FlixBus. Before that, I was finishing up experiments for my master’s thesis1 in neuroimmunology when I became inspired (partly through automating away mindless tasks) to deep-dive into coding. Soon I discovered the world of data science and machine learning, proceeded to have my mind blown, and decided I could best get my analytical fix within the framework of working in tech rather than in labs at the glacial pace of acadaemia. In terms of education, I have a M.Sc in Medical Neurosciences from the Charite Medical University in Berlin and a B.Sc in Biopyschology from UC Santa Barbara2. I speak German fluently3 and have lived in Berlin for about half of the past decade.

Head over to my GitHub or LinkedIn though most of my current projects are privately hosted on GitLab.

  1. My master’s thesis topic was to investigate whether a certain commonly prescribed drug to treat multiple sclerosis (the exact one I’m supposed to keep confidential) exerts a protective effect on neurons - i.e. the search for the holy grail of ’neuroprotective’ a drug. We did this by looking at a model of oxidative stress, where we treated nerves taken from mice with a light hydrogen peroxide solution, and tried to prevent cell death with the drug. Our metrics were mitochondrial movement and morphology, where we took live videos of fluorescent-labeled mitochondria with a high-powered microscope. After graduating I worked in Dr. Carmen Infante-Duarte’s laboratory for a few months to finish up the experiments and video analysis. ↩︎

  2. Evidently, ‘Biospychology’ is a portmaneau of Biology and Psychology, but it gets confusing as some schools refer to it as ‘Psychobiology’ or ‘Behavioral Neuroscience’, etc. It basically consists of a foundational knowledge of statistics, calculus, biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, neuroscience, and then a ton of neuroscience and behavioral pharmacology on top (think rats pulling levers for drugs) along with psychology / psychopharmacology of brain disorders. ↩︎

  3. At first, I wanted to be a writer and studied German literature, so I learned German to be able to read Nietzsche and Kafka in their original languages. I completed a year of coursework in Berlin at the Humboldt University as an Erasmus student in 2010-11. When I returned, I took a course called “Bridging the Humanities and Neuroscience” at UCSB which inspired me to become a neuroscientist. I decided if I’m going to be heavily in debt due to an undergraduate education, I may as well buckle down and become a scientist. In high school, Chemistry was my best subject, so I dropped the pen except for some free-lance poetry in the backs of buses on my way to lab. Three other side passions of mine are beer-brewing, cooking and beat-making. My last beer was a sour Belgian Golden Ale (clocking in at around 7.2% abv), and my new favorite recipe is Kung Pao chicken (or mushrooms, to keep it vegan). The musical career never took off, but I still enjoy jamming out on Ableton on a rainy day now and again. ↩︎

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