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Kristofor Belew Nyquist
PhD Candidate, Biophysics Graduate Group
University of California, Berkeley
[email protected]
Education
Ph.D., Biophysics, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California
expected 2015
B.S., Physics, Mathematics minor, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington
2010
summa cum laude, with honors, GPA: 3.96
Research Experience
PhD Candidate, Thesis Project
2011-present
Biophysics Graduate Group
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California
Research Advisor: Dr. Andreas Martin
Studied the force-generation mechanism of the AAA+ protease ClpXP using singlemolecule approaches. Acquired skills in instrumentation, optics, software engineering,
data analysis, signal processing, statistical learning, and molecular cloning/protein
purification.
PhD Research Project, 3 months
2010
Biophysics Graduate Group
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California
Research Advisor: Dr. Ahmet Yildiz
Worked towards understanding the molecular basis of dynein motility using optical
tweezers. Assisted in the construction and calibration of an optical tweezers instrument.
Designed assay to monitor the activity of single dynein molecules with optical tweezers.
Acquired skills in laser spectroscopy, instrumentation, optics, software engineering, and
data analysis.
PhD Research Project, 3 months
2010
Biophysics Graduate Group
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California
Research Advisor: Dr. Daniel Fletcher
Probed role of cell-size and membrane tension on the scaling of the mitotic spindle.
Acquired skills in microfluidics, CAD, circuit design, and cell biology.
Undergraduate Researcher
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Washington State University, Pullman, Washington
Research Advisor: Dr. Doerte Blume
2008-2010
Research concerned understanding the self-organization of ionic and dipolar systems
constrained to geometries of restricted dimension. Developed and implemented
computational techniques that include: molecular dynamics, simulated annealing, and
Monte Carlo integration.
Research Publications
Nyquist, K.N. and Martin, A.M. (2014). Marching to the beat of the ring: polypeptide
translocation by AAA+ proteases. Trends Biochem. Sci. 39
Nyquist, K.N.*, Maillard, R.A.*, Sen, M.S.*, Rodriguez, P.A., Presse, S., Martin, A.M., and
Bustamante, C.B. (2013). The ClpXP protease unfolds substrates using a constant rate of pulling
but different gears. Cell 155
*equal contribution
Research Publications in Preparation
Nyquist, K.N., Maillard, R.A., Bustamante, C.B., and Martin, A.M. ClpXP translocates with a
preferred order and number of firing subunits.
Nyquist, K.N., Martin, A.M., and Presse, S. Reverse steps in molecular motors can be data analysis
artifacts.
Selected Presentations
Nyquist, K.N., Maillard, R.A., Sen, M.S., Bustamante, C.B., Martin, A.M. (2014). ClpXP can fire on
different cylinders. Research poster. Berkeley Biophysics Retreat
Nyquist, K.N. (2013). ClpXP operates at constant rpm but with different gears. Invited talk.
Biophysics SERPS
Nyquist, K.N., Maillard, R.A., Sen, M.S., Bustamante, C.B., Martin, A.M. (2013). Keeping tempo:
translocation by a AAA+ protease. Invited talk. Berkeley Biophysics Retreat
Nyquist, K.N., Maillard, R.A., Presse, S., Bustamante, C.B., Martin, A.M. (2012). A smart stepfitting algorithm for detecting steps in non-stationary, noisy signals. Research poster. Berkeley
Biophysics Retreat
Nyquist, K.N. and Blume, D. (2010). Theoretical description of low-dimensional dipoles in the
strongly-interacting regime. Invited talk. Undergraduate research session, APS DAMOP
Honors and Awards
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
2012-present
- three year fellowship, funds PhD research
NIH Molecular Biophysics Training Grant
2010-2012
- two year fellowship, funded PhD research
American Physical Society Atomic Physics Undergrad Research Competition Winner
2010
WSU Alumni Association Big Ten Senior
- one of five men and five women selected from WSU’s 2010 class for academics
NASA Space Grant Undergraduate Scholarship in Science and Engineering
- one year fellowship, funded research project with Prof. Doerte Blume
Washington State University College of Sciences Distinguished Student
Washington State University Undergraduate Poster Competition, 2nd Place
Washington State University Regent’s Scholar
- two year scholarship for school-related expenses
Washington State University President’s Honor Roll
Washington State Scholar
- four year full tuition scholarship to any Washington state school
Teaching Experience
Graduate student instructor
Physics Department
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California
Teach course about modern research in biological physics to
junior transfer students majoring in physics
Rotation student mentor
Biophysics Graduate Group
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California
Mentor first-year PhD students on their research projects.
Teach students best lab practices and how to use new laboratory
equipment.
Tutor
2010
2009
2009
2009
2006-2008
2006-2010
2006-2010
2013-present
2011-present
2007-2010
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Washington State University, Pullman, Washington
Tutored undergraduate introductory physics and chemistry classes.
Covered material in classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism,
physical chemistry, organic chemistry, and biological physics.