I am a computational biologist with a track record of combing theoretical and empirical analyses to quantify and understand natural selection in the genome. I studied with Ines Hellmann, Joachim Hermisson, and Magnus Nordborg at the University of Vienna, Austria while pursuing my PhD, and did three years of postdoctoral research with Kirk E. Lohmueller at the University of California, Los Angeles. Recently, I was awarded the prestigious Discovery Early Career Research Award for the project “Palaeo-population genomics: studying adaptation using ancient human DNA” that I started as a Principal Investigator at the University of Adelaide in Australia.

During my graduate work, I used population genetic methods to investigate local adaptation within subpopulations of Swedish A. thaliana. Further, I developed a powerful new method for detecting signatures of positive selection in the genome to identified novel candidate regions in humans. During my postdoctoral position, I worked on characterizing and interpreting fitness effects of deleterious mutations in different species, developing a novel comparative population-genomic framework. I am currently working on new approaches for detecting and interpreting adaption in recent human history using ancient DNA, integrating selection scans with prior biological knowledge of molecular pathways and networks.