Brydon Eastman

Photo of Brydon Eastman

Brydon Eastman, Ph.D.

Member of Technical Staff

OpenAI

This is the personal website of Brydon Eastman. I am an Applied Mathematician and just defended my Ph.D. at the University of Waterloo (May, 2022) in the Math Medicine Lab under the supervision of Mohammad Kohandel. Previously I obtained an M.Sc. from McMaster University under the supervision of Gail Wolkowicz and a B.Sc. (Hons) from Redeemer University with my thesis supervised by Kevin Vander Meulen. I am grateful to have received multiple awards for both my teaching and my research.

Broadly, my research interests have involved computational biology and general mathematical modelling of biological processes, systems, and phenomena. In particular, my Ph.D. Thesis was interested in applying machine learning/artificial intelligence techniques in tandem with differential equations and stochastic models to answer questions of cancer stem cell evolution and treatment response in the study of human cancers. I find biological systems to be fascinating in their complexity and hope to elucidate their behaviour by using stochastic machine learning techniques coupled with traditional models. After all, nature has no compunction to regulate towards easy description even if it does so in aggregate.

Currently, my research interests have skewed a lot more towards my Computer Science background than my Applied Math background -- though I find the parallels uncanny. I am concerned with research around Artificial General Intelligence including, broadly, issues in safety, alignment, and how self-improving AI relates to these goals. I feel deeply inspired and humbled by the power of these large networks and I feel an incredible responsibility to, in whatever little way I can, act as a midwife in the advent of this new age of computing. The parallels between studying ML systems and studying computational biology astound me and impart in me a sense of awe whose entirety I neither understand nor deserve.

Here you will find useful information about me, my research interests, teaching and tutorial resources, and updates of what I'm up to. Please contact me if you have any questions!