Tyler was born and raised in Missoula, Montana. He received his B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 2016. During his undergraduate career, he gained experience designing spatiotemporal DNA nanotube assemblies under the guidance of Prof. Rebecca Schulman. After graduating, Tyler joined the Molecular Engineering and Science Institute at the University of Washington to continue his studies on biomolecular self-assembly under the supervision of Prof. René Overney. Tyler’s graduate research focused on controlling the dynamic nature of peptide self-assembly at inorganic interfaces and interrogating bio-nano interactions with scanning probe microscopy techniques and molecular dynamics simulations. Tyler is interested in pairing his knowledge of biomolecular design and assembly with the Rowan groups’ synthetic chemistry expertise to create mechanically sensitive bio-hybrid materials inspired by and incorporating components of the actin cytoskeleton.