Tristen West received his B.S. (2025) in Chemistry from Purdue University where he worked with various computational methods to optimize structure-based spectroscopic calculations on chlorophyll binding proteins under the mentorship of Dr. Mike Reppert. Tristen additionally worked at the Heartland Food Products Group where he developed an industrial protocol to extract glycosides from Stevia for consumption, and integrated vibrational spectroscopy methods in the verification process of sweeteners. While in pursuit of his Ph.D., his research primarily focuses on leveraging high-resolution mass spectrometry imaging to study inflammatory bowel disease. In his free time, Tristen enjoys traveling, live music, and playing guitar.