Index 04 — About
About
I'm Elias, or Eliyahu, Suskind, and I work across engineering and the life sciences. I'm most at home at the intersection between the two: doing biological and biochemical research and writing software and building hardware to faciliate said research. As fellow engineer and role model Mr. Dell Conagher once astutely said: "...I solve problems. Not problems like 'What is beauty?' because that would fall within the purview of your conundrums of philosophy. I solve practical problems." While I cannot ascertain his motivations, my favorite aspect of solving the problems that come my way academically and professionally is chance to do so in a creative out-of-the-box fashion, drawing from throughout my interdisciplinary background while doing so.
Academic & research direction
My path through school has not been without pivots and bumps in the road. I originally began in a consortium program between Babson and Olin college where I got the chance to built a strong foundation in product development, computer engineering, and analytics. I entered the industry as a machine learning engineer just as LLMs began truly disrupting the landscape of tech. While this was disheartening, the upheaval it caused paired with the joy and pride I derived from my undergraduate thesis lead me to rediscover my passion for the life sciences—specifically the brain. Consequentally, I ended up pursing another bachelor's in neurobiology and physiology at Arizona State University. All of this has lead me to my current academic pursuit: working toward a dual M.S. in computer science and microbiology at Oregon State University. My published research reflects this range, from the biochemistry ofpost-fermented tea to a clinical review of therapies for eosinophilic esophagitis. You can read those in Research.
Technical background
My technical background spans computer science, engineering, and the life sciences, with an emphasis on building computational tools that answer biological and clinical questions. I am equally comfortable writing software, analyzing high-dimensional datasets, designing experiments, and working at the laboratory bench, allowing me to bridge the gap between data generation and data interpretation.
My programming experience includes Python, R, C/C++, SQL, TypeScript, MATLAB, Bash/Linux, LATEX, and even the occasional oddball like SystemVerilog and COBOL. I use these languages to develop scientific software, automate analyses, visualize results, and build reproducible research pipelines. My data science work incorporates statistical modeling, machine learning, probabilistic graphical models, Bayesian networks, and modern scientific computing libraries including NumPy, Pandas, Scikit-learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch, and Matplotlib.
In bioinformatics, I work with both 16S rRNA and shotgun metagenomic sequencing data, using tools such as MOTHUR, BLAST, phyloseq, and phytools for sequence processing, taxonomic classification, microbial community analysis, and downstream statistical interpretation. My research frequently combines computational methods with clinical and laboratory workflows, integrating sequencing data, electronic health records, and biological measurements into unified analytical pipelines.
My laboratory experience includes molecular biology, microbiology, and clinical research techniques such as qPCR, DNA extraction and quantification, gel electrophoresis, bacterial and fungal culture, aseptic technique, biopsy and stool sample processing, nucleic acid sequencing, clinical chart review in Epic, IRB protocol development, experimental design, and research ethics. This combination of wet-lab and computational experience allows me to understand experimental systems from sample collection through statistical analysis.
I also have an engineering background in embedded systems, low-voltage electronics, FPGA development, Arduino-based instrumentation, signal processing, and power systems. Whether designing software, analyzing biological datasets, or building custom hardware, I enjoy creating practical tools that connect engineering principles with scientific discovery.
Creative practice
I photograph as one half of the duo Golden Ratio Alchemy, shooting editorial work, portraits, and live music around the Pacific Northwest. I also make pixel art and am working on a few passion projects, notably a video game. These can be found in Creative.
Personal interests
Away from the desk and lab bench I love geocaching, hiking in the Cascades, tinkering, inventing gadgets, and taking care of my plants, mushrooms, and cats. I consider myself a lifelong learner as it's the simplest explanation for a résumé that refuses to pick a single lane.
Jakob Finci is the current president of Bosnia and Hererzegovina's Jewish Community. We are both Jews, but that is about where the similarities end. When I first made my GitHub, I was wracking my brain for some sort of clever name and for some reason the Balkans popped into my head (probably due to its geopolitical insanity). So I simply googled "Balkan Jews" and Voila!, the rest is history
TL;DR: Dumb and meaningless reference to a fellow Jew.
Contact
Reach outHappy to talk about research, engineering, or a photo shoot.