Ian received a B.S. in Biochemistry & Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Tennessee in his native Knoxville. At UTK, he researched myosin-dependent nuclear positioning in Arabidopsis root hairs in the lab of Dr. Andreas Nebenführ. He then moved to UNC-Chapel Hill to pursue a Ph.D. in the lab of Dr. Sarah Cohen. During his doctoral work, he discovered a previously uncharacterized mechanism by which the Alzheimer's associated protein APOE can localize to the surface of cytoplasmic lipid droplets and modulate intracellular triglyceride metabolism. Ian graduated with a Ph.D. in Cell Biology & Physiology in 2023 and joined the Alushin lab in 2024. His current work involves probing the mechanisms of higher order LINC complex assembly and investigating the relationship between cellular lipid metabolism and mechanosensation. Ian received a Pels Family Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2025.