From September 17-21, 2018, we introduce you to some of the postdocs at the JGI in honor of National Postdoc Appreciation Week, which recognizes the contributions of these early career researchers. Through a series of hard-hitting questions, we find out what drives each one.
What do you work on? In the Prokaryote Super Program with Nikos Kyrpides, I am interested in the natural histories of microorganisms — particularly, when and how they have moved from place to place and host to host. Unfortunately, it is difficult to fit microbes with radio tracking collars. Instead, I have been using graph theory and machine learning to look for patterns in large phylogenies that indicate possibly illuminating events, and then apply more computationally intensive Bayesian methods to attempt to reconstruct them.
When did you join JGI? July 2018
Where did you join us from? Jonathan Eisen’s group at the University of California, Davis.
What drives your passion outside of JGI? Cautiously poking at things with a stick, evidently.
What is your favorite quote? “I started the day with some nothin’ tea. Nothin’ tea is easy to make. First, get some hot water, then add nothin’.” ― Andy Weir, The Martian
What is your favorite food? Viridiplantae and fungi, mostly.