John Wakeley
Research
Fundamentally, my research is about extracting information
from population samples of DNA sequences.
I use mathematical models to understand how a variety of current and historical
factors conspire to produce the patterns of variation which are readily observable
among individuals within species. I use both analytical and
computational techniques to make inferences about these factors from patterns of
genetic variation.
This field is called Theoretical Population Genetics, and my own research has
mainly been in three areas: (1) the study of finely-subdivided populations,
often called metapopulations, where much of my work has been on the
many-demes model, (2) the study of human history, where the focus
has been on inferring historical events in the context of our demographically-complex
population, and (3) the study of diverging populations or closely-related
species, which has resulted in a series of methods for disentangling the
various historical factors which shape genetic variation.
Follow this publications link for references
and articles to download.
This work has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or
recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Teaching
I teach Life Sciences 1b, OEB 152: Population Genetics, OEB 252: Coalescent Theory,
and OEB 253r: Seminar in Evolutionary Genetics. You can read descriptions of them
here.
I wrote a textbook for Coalescent Theory. You can find it at Amazon.com
or at Roberts & Company Publishers.
Other
Back to the lab.
If you like Mark Rothko paintings, this is "Orange and Yellow" from 1956.
This scan is by Mark Harden. Go to
his site for more and, especially, to read about copyright laws and the
fair use of artistic images.