Hi! My name is Mahler Revsine (he/him; name pronounced like “dollar”). I’m a scientist interested in using Deep Learning to advance our understanding of Genomics. I am currently a PhD student working under the supervision of Dr. Michael Schatz in the Computer Science Department at Johns Hopkins Univeristy. I am grateful to be supported by the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

Research

I have been fortunate to learn from a number of talented PIs throughout my scientific career. During my undergrad at the University of North Carolina, Dr. Jeremy Wang introduced me to the field of bioinformatics and got me hooked on the idea of using my programming skills to solve real-world problems. Throughout my postbac program at the National Cancer Institute at the NIH, I got to work with Drs. Xin Wei Wang and Lichun Ma, both of whom enthusiastically guided me on a project to analyze tumor evolution during immunotherapy treatment. In my first semester of my PhD program at Johns Hopkins, I had the opportunity to rotate with Dr. Steven Salzberg, whose passion for discovery inspired me during a project to assess reported microbial counts in human cancer samples. Most recently, my advisor Dr. Michael Schatz has been a savvy mentor and a tremendous resource, showing me the frontiers of which key questions are currently unsolved in genomics while also helping me grow into a deep learning researcher.

Background

I grew up in Washington DC, where I attended School Without Walls High School (it’s a metaphor, we did in fact have walls). I went to college at the University of North Carolina, where I majored in Computer Science and Biology (go heels!).

Some of my hobbies include:

• Basketball, both watching and playing - I’m a huge fan of the Chicago Bulls, even though I was born after Jordan left the team. I play recreationally as much as possible, including in Hopkins’ intramural leagues.
• Sports in general - I’m also a fan of the Chicago Bears, although this has been a net negative on my life.
• Travel - If I’m not in another country, I’m saving up to go to one!
• Maps - I am constantly on the hunt for a political, south-up, equal area map projection. There’s one I’ve seen online but it’s too small. If anyone finds one, please contact me.
• Daily games - I do the NYTimes crossword every day and am also a fan of Wordle, the NYTimes Spelling Bee, geography games, and others.
• Personal coding projects - I’ve done a variety of projects here and there when inspiration strikes. The one I’ve put the most time into is to make a chess engine that I can’t beat, which is still a work in progress.