Staff

David is the Brooks group manager. He maintains the computational cluster(s), works with Brooks group members and others on computing-related problems, and manages resources and space in the group.

Josh Buckner manages CHARMM, a molecular simulation program. He directs improvements, software releases, and git repositories for an international group of collaborators. He helps staff, students, and postdocs integrate CHARMM software into their research projects and is the go-to person in the lab when problems arise or additional functionality is needed.

Josh has published software notes in the journals Bioinformatics and Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation and mathematical papers in Journal of Algebra and Israel Journal of Mathematics. He has been at the University of Michigan since 2008, first in the Meng lab (Bioinformatics) and the Cardia lab (Epidemiology). He has been with the Brooks lab (Chemistry) since 2013. He also supports the Hansen lab (Statistics) using R programming skills for statistical assessment of public education data as directed by the Texas Education Agency.

Josh has a BA in Mathematics and Computer Science with honors from Trinity University, San Antonio, and an MS in Mathematics from Texas State University at San Marcos. He earned his PhD in Mathematics from Baylor University under the direction of Manfred Dugas in the area of rings with distinguished ideals and then taught for a year as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Clayton State University in Morrow, Georgia.

Josh grew up on a golf resort in rural Texas. He is a professional game master running mainly D&D games at Sylvan Factory in Ann Arbor and The Dragon's Roost in Toledo. He enjoys running and reading both contemporary literature and the classics; Borges is a particular favorite.

Josh's Erdős number is 3.

Christina is the primary point of contact for all administrative matters within the Brooks Research Group, managing Charlie's schedule, the Group calendar, meetings, journal club, travel plans, expense reconciliation, and more.

Christina planned the 2026 CHARMM Developers Meeting, including registration records, website administration, accommodations, transportation, catering, attendee communications, and presentation information.

She has a BS in Food Technology & Management from Michigan State University. She is married, has four living children, two dogs, and a cat. In addition to working part-time at UM, she owns a small business, serves as President of the Brighton Optimist Club, and volunteers in the community. She enjoys cooking, arts & crafts, trivia, board and card games, and spending time with her friends and family. LinkedIn