BIO:

Dr. Joseph McKinley earned his Ph.D. in Physics from Florida Atlantic University in the Fall of 2025, and earned a BS in Physics with a Minor in Mathematics from the University of Florida in the Spring of 2018.

During his Ph.D. training, Joseph was hired to work as a graduate research assistant on an interdisciplinary NIH-funded research project titled “The Mathematics of Relatedness”. This project investigated video recordings of virtual social interactions of groups of older adults with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias interacting with younger group facilitators. The purpose of this research study was twofold: 1. to develop new dynamical system models for describing how the coordination dynamics of interacting subpopulations are affected by their embedding in larger complexes; and 2. to use statistical analyses of empirical behavioral data to identify factors in the social interactions described above which predict enhanced social engagement, which may be used to engineer these groups to improve the older adults’ health by reducing social isolation. Joseph has also worked as a graduate teaching assistant, teaching and tutoring Physics Labs 1 and 2, which cover classical mechanics, thermodynamics, electromagnetism, and optics, and has personally mentored numerous students over the years.

Joseph’s training has involved working in mathematical physics, nonlinear dynamics in complex systems, computational modeling and data analysis, and social and neuroscience applied to healthcare. He is primarily interested in conducting research at the intersection of dynamical systems modeling and statistical data analysis and applying these tools to solve problems in neuropsychiatry and fundamental neuroscience research, and is also interested in eventually incorporating artificial intelligence and its applications as a focus of his research. Joseph is also passionate about the scientific research of consciousness.

Additionally, Joseph has a lifelong passion for science, especially physics, mathematics, and psychology, and is also interested in philosophy and comparative religion (especially Buddhism). Joseph is also passionate about fundamental physics and pure mathematics, and would like to do research in quantum gravity, cosmology, and pure mathematics someday. After his postdoc, Joseph would like to pursue either an academic career as a tenure-track professor, a quantitative finance or data science job in industry, or teach as a college instructor.

In his free time, Joseph enjoys watching TV, YouTube, or movies, playing videos games, going on walks, spending time in nature, taking naps, meditating, listening to and playing music, reading, learning new math and physics, reading, and hanging out with friends.