Everyone in the Elting lab was very sad to learn that Mohamed unexpectedly passed away in July 2022. As he was very close to defending, his PhD was awarded posthumously in late 2022. The bio he wrote for the lab website is included below.

Mohamed Moshtohry, a physics PhD. student at NC State University. I got my bachelor’s degree in Egypt at UST-ZC, in theoretical particle physics. My interest in biophysics sparked in my senior undergraduate year at Aboul-ela’s lab, the Center of X-ray Determination of the Structure of Matter. We worked on modeling the folding mechanism of the SAM-I riboswitch, using X-ray crystallography along with stochastic simulations. So, I switched to biophysics in my PhD. believing that with the right mindset, you can answer the hardest questions, you just got to learn how to think, which I hope I learned in my undergraduate physics studies.

In my graduate career, I joined Mary Elting’s lab, where we are working on combining the results of laser ablation experiments along with computational and molecular models to generate a mathematical model of the contractile forces of the acto-myosin ring formed during cell division of eukaryotic cells.

Hobbies include, but are not limited to: writing screenplays, wildlife photography, sharp cooking skills, making music, football (soccer), making lists and a little bit of cinematography.