André is a senior PhD student (expected graduation, November 2013) in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department at Harvard where he is supported as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and Harvard GSAS Graduate Prize Fellow. He earned his BS in biology at MIT (2008). His current work with Prof. Cassandra Extavour involves uncovering the molecular genetic basis of organ size specification, and determining how these factors contribute to the evolution of reproductive traits in flies. In his postdoctoral research, he hopes to use this work as a novel model for studying the population- and evolutionary genetics of morphological traits.

André spends much of his time outside of the lab in the classroom as a teacher or as a teaching consultant. He has a particularly close relationship with the MIT SEED Academy, a rigorous engineering-based high school enrichment program for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. André considers it his personal reward and priority to work with these students, as they remind him of his excitement for science, and further encourage him to promote curiosity and scholarship.