Biography

My name is Dr. David Nisson. I was born on St. Patrick's Day of 1988, and diagnosed with autism ("Level 2-3" in DSM-5) first by the highly-regarded Dr. Ron Huff of ACRC in 1992, followed by a more detailed diagnosis from the well-respected team of Drs. Bryna Siegel, Lissa Rechtin, and Glen R. Elliott of the University of California, San Francisco in 1993. I am one of the first patients to have received treatment from the UC Davis MIND Institute's ACCESS program, and the techniques that I learned through this program have helped me trenendously. I am also a patient of the esteemed autism expert, Dr. Stephen Nowicki, M.D., Ph.D. My form of autism requires lifetime personal assistance. I often misinterpret situations or things that people say, especially in workplace environments, and sometimes my misinterpretation triggers my panic disorder. I also have paradoxical vocal fold motion disorder (PVFM), which causes episodes of difficulty breathing and can be triggered by the panic attacks. Despite these challenges, I have done well in college and have earned tremendous success in the field of physics, and have developed excellent software coding skills during the course of this profession. Experts have told me that I am the first American with autism severe enough to require personal assistance to pursue a doctorate degree in physics and advance to candidacy. I am currently a member of Yolo People First, a self-advocacy group for people with developmental disabilities.

My interests in science and computers began at the young age of eight years, while enrolled at Elk Grove Montessori School in my home town of Elk Grove, California. From that time until my sophomore year of high school, I wanted to be a chemist. Then, after reading about the search for the Higgs boson, my interest changed to particle physics. With my personal assistant by my side the entire time I went to school, I attended college. My work in particle physics began in my undergraduate years, when I transferred from the Cosumnes River College to the University of California at Davis (UC Davis). I was privileged to work with the highly respected Dr. John Conway, and researched with his Boosted Top Group, developing algorithms for mining large volumes of data for significant results, until my graduation in the summer of 2010. At that time, I decided to remain at UC Davis for graduate school, but left particle physics for condensed matter research, and joined the dynamic N. J. Curro NMR Group.

On June 12, 2010, I received a Bachelor of Science in physics with highest honors from UC Davis, where I chose to remain as a graduate student. My first two years of graduate study and research were funded primarily by the Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship. My subsequent years of education were funded entirely by fellowships. My research and education during the two years after the Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship period were funded primarily by the UC Davis Graduate Research Mentorship Fellowship and Dr. Curro's National Science Foundation (NSF) grant (#DMR-1005393). During this time, I worked in a laboratory and, for safety reasons, had to have my personal assistant by my side at all times in the laboratory. The safety issues of working in this laboratory brought many challenges. I took many more hours to learn laboratory procedures than other students did. I also had difficulty with situational awareness, hence the requirement for a personal assistant to be with me at all times in the laboratory. Although I was able to handle the advanced academic demands of undergraduate and graduate school, this meant that I was too busy to meet the demands of the living skill development programs in which people with my diagnosis normally participate, starting at age eighteen. Thus, in order to be able to commit to a technology job, I need to take the time now—after college—to learn daily living skills, work communication skills, and self-advocacy skills. You can read the stories of how my personal assistant (and mother) has helped me to succeed at her blog, College Autism Dream. So, instead of fellowships, SSI funds my shelter and food while I participate in these programs.

Please be advised: the Student Earned Income Exemption (SEIE) only helps college students through age 21. After that age, you will want to ask your social workers how one of their programs for students over age 21 can help. Possibilities might include the following: Ticket to Work, and PASS. I'm not your social worker, so I don't know what program would be best for you as you and your case worker look for ways to protect your SSI.

During my graduate years I helped several colleagues with their research, and helped Abigail Shockley take data at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. I also helped to write custom control code that was necessary for various pieces of laboratory equipment, and it was during this time that I realized that my greatest passion was for software development. However, by this time I was already receiving fellowships and working on a dissertation, and so I decided to continue with physics research. In 2013, I advanced to doctoral candidacy and received a Master of Science in physics. In 2015 I wrote my dissertation and graduated with a doctoral degree; my education and research that year were made possible by the UC Davis Dissertation Year Fellowship and the NSF grant. Although I am now interested in computer programming, I'm very grateful to the university, the funding agencies, and others who helped me pursue my dream of being a scientist. Until June 2016, I volunteered for Dr. Mikhail Veshtort in computational physics, and then I volunteered for the Renewable Energy Laboratory of Dr. Adam Moule as part of the research on the then-experimental ACCESS program of the UC Davis MIND Institute.

Although my work as a doctoral candidate was in basic research, and I am quite interested in the cause of technologies for obtaining clean energy including the advances made in photovoltaics and in supercapacitors, since I have graduated I have been mostly interested in software projects. I am receiving support for pursuing this career interest by Community and Employment Services, the Davis, CA chapter of Progressive Employment Concepts. With support from this agency I have volunteered to design the code for the Yolo Interfaith Immigration Network.

In addition to pursuing a technology career, I am also a disability advocate focused on the rights of the cognitively disabled to attend college, as well as strategies to help us succeed and thrive. I am a member of the self-advocacy group Yolo People First, and am involved in the College Students & Professionals with Disabilities project of the Supported Life Institute.