Benjamin Piazza is a PhD candidate working with Professor Albert-László Barabàsi. He is broadly studying physical networks, a class of networks which have nodes and edges additionally described by fixed positions and thicknesses. Included in physical networks are the fruit fly brain, plant root networks, vascular networks, and other systems. He is also interested in 3D network layout, both in the context of physical networks and for the visual interpretation of network structure. He has a Bachelor’s degree in physics from The Pennsylvania State University and has previously worked with Dr. Nitin Samarth there, researching nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond.