News

Research

I use mathematics and computational techniques to answer questions in evolutionary genetics. The mathematics is mostly Bayesian inference and stochastic process modeling. The computation is primarily Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). The evolutionary genetics has focused on phylogenetics and multiple sequence alignment, but recently includes some population genetics and coalescent theory as well.

Work

Since Sep 2015, I've been a research scientist with with Mark Holder on the Open Tree of Life project, part time.

After Nov 2022, I'll be open to work as a remote research scientist or contractor, part-time. I can do a wide variety of statistical and bioinformatics analyses, including read mapping, phylogeny and alignment estimation, and other statistical tests. I am also a good C++ programmer.

Phylogenetic Alignment

I develop the MCMC software BAli-Phy for inferring highly-accurate multiple sequence alignments (MSA). BAli-Phy performs inference under a phylogenetic model, and so it places insertions and deletions on specific branches of the evolutionary tree instead of just placing gaps in a matrix. BAli-Phy also co-estimates the evolutionary tree along with the alignment.

Fixed-Alignment Phylogenetic Inference

I've also been contributing to RevBayes, a general program for Bayesian phylogenetic inference.