Dr. Ben Larson received a BA in physics from Reed College. As a postbac researcher, he conducted research on the molecular organization and biophysical principles of exocytosis and endocytosis in the lab of Dr. Justin Taraska (NIH). During that time, Dr. Larson also collaborated with Dr. Harald Hess’s lab (HHMI Janelia Farm) on advanced microscopy methods and computational image analysis. He obtained his PhD in biophysics from UC Berkeley, where he studied the evolutionary cell biology of multicellular morphogenesis from a biophysical perspective in Dr. Nicole King’s lab. He next joined Dr. Wallace Marshall’s lab at UCSF where he studied sensorimotor activity in single-celled organisms, focusing primarily on the ciliate Euplotes, a cell that can walk across surfaces using leg-like appendages. Dr. Larson joined the faculty of the Department of Biological Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as an Assistant Professor in August of 2024, and his lab is working to understand the regulation and evolution of complex cellular behaviors.