Dr. David Talaga received his undergraduate degree in chemistry and mathematics from Occidental College and supplemented his interests with graduate courses from Caltech. He started a volunteer tutoring program that significantly increased the number of students show could receive extra help in chemistry and biology. These efforts also enhanced the interaction between student in the earlier and later years of their undergraduate experience. These experiences cemented his interest in research and teaching in physical chemistry.

Dr. Talaga's research program focuses on the heterogeneity in protein conformation, particularly as proteins aggregate into various intermediates that lead to amyloid formation. His research group develops measurements that can distinguish protein conformation through different aggregation states. A significant part of their efforts includes solving experimental and theoretical challenges that arise in measuring and interpreting such heterogeneous systems. These problems not only confound characterization of amyloidogenesis, but also appear in most protein systems, making these ancillary developments important to many other fields.

Protein Folding, Protein and Peptide Conformational Dynamics, Protein Aggregation, Amyloid, Parkinson’s Disease, Amyloidoses, Nanopores, Single Molecule Fluorescence, Ultrafast Spectroscopy, Information Theory, Bayesian Statistics, Global Data Analysis, Statistical Mechanics.

General Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Spectroscopy, Group Theory, Statistical Mechanics, Statistical Thermodynamics, Biophysical Chemistry, General Education Chemistry.