Aidan was born in Norfolk, Virginia and grew up in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia. He stayed in-state for college, attending The Pennsylvania State University, where he graduated from the Schreyer Honors College with a B.S. in Microbiology and a minor in Molecular Biology. While at Penn State he also trained as an EMT, which gave him a first look at clinical medicine and left him with two interests he was pursuing separately: caring for patients, and doing science.

His first research experience came in the laboratory of Dr. Tim Miyashiro, where he spent three years studying the symbiosis between the bioluminescent bacterium Vibrio fischeri and the Hawaiian bobtail squid — a partnership in which the squid recruits a specific microbe from the open ocean and, in return, uses its light as camouflage. Watching a host and a bacterium work out that arrangement drew Aidan to microbiology, and to the question of how microbes and their hosts come to depend on, and contend with, one another.

After Penn State, Aidan spent a gap year at the University of Pittsburgh in the laboratory of Dr. Kathy Shair, developing CRISPR-Cas9 approaches to edit Epstein-Barr virus genomes in the context of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. The experience solidified his interest in infectious disease research and his plan to combine it with the care of patients.

In 2023, Aidan moved to Dallas to begin the MD/PhD program at UT Southwestern as a Perot Family Scholar in the Medical Scientist Training Program. After his first two years of medical school, he joined the Forsberg Lab to pursue a PhD in Molecular Microbiology, where he studies the genetic regulation of the evolutionary arms race between phages and bacteria. After finishing his MD/PhD, he plans to pursue clinical training in pathology or infectious disease and hopes to one day both run a research lab and practice as a physician.

Outside the lab, Aidan likes to explore and to make things. He does woodworking and larger carpentry projects around the house, repairs and collects mechanical watches, grows and tends a steadily expanding number of plants, and enjoys tinkering with most things that come apart. He also travels whenever he can, spends time in art museums, and watches a lot of movies. In the fall, however, most weekends belong to Penn State Football and the Philadelphia Eagles. GO BIRDS!!!