After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in biology from Hobart College, Zach investigated the consciousness of o. bimaculoides in the Tse lab at Dartmouth College. There, he studied second order motion perception and working memory within the animals to explore what their convergent evolution to homologous systems in chordates implies about the selective pressures on the development of vision and information retention/organization. In the Sharpe-CHIME lab, he investigated novel immunotherapy candidates and alternative applications for targeted/controlled CRISPR-mediated gene editing.