NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: Coalescent Modeling of Sex Chromosome Evolution with Gene Flow and Analysis of Sexed-versus-Gendered Effects in Human Admixture

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This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2023, Broadening Participation of Groups Underrepresented in Biology. The goal of this project is to generate insights about how events in human evolutionary history, such as interactions between populations, can be inferred from modern genome data. This work seeks to deepen the understanding of biological and social factors that have shaped human history. The research will also generate theories to contextualize identity categories within human evolutionary genomics, and further develop approaches to help understand human diversity. In addition, this project will provide the fellow with training in the mathematical and computational techniques used in population genetics, and promote the fellow’s activities in public outreach, mentoring of trainees, and fostering inclusive community within Brown University’s postdoctoral body.This project will give the fellow an opportunity to continue developing skills in theoretical population genetics, with a particular focus on coalescent theory and simulations. The project will include the development of a coalescent model which can describe the evolution of non-autosomal chromosomes with inversions, a critical component of modeling patterns of bias in admixture. In addition, the fellow will use forward-time population genetic simulations of gene flow between populations to generate expectations of patterns of relatedness under novel models of gene-by-environmental and cultural determination of migration probability. The fellow will then use the results of the theory and simulation work to generate insights into how human demographic history has been impacted by cultural and biological factors. This project will build on work in science and technology studies, mathematics, and evolutionary biology to generate an interdisciplinary understanding of how populations evolve in the face of admixture and gene flow. Finally, throughout the course of the project, the fellow will support underrepresented students in STEM through teaching, mentorship, and community organizing in collaboration with existing groups at Brown University.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.