Daniel WeissmanAssistant Professor

Education

• Ph.D., Stanford University, 2010
• BA, Harvard University, 2005

Research Area

• Population Biology, Ecology and Evolution
• Theoretical physics

Graduate Program Affiliation

• Population Biology, Ecology and Evolution

Research Description

Associated Faculty in Biology.  Main appointment in Department of Physics.

We want to be able to predict how populations will evolve. (For example, when a new antibiotic is developed, we would like to know whether bacteria will become resistant in weeks, decades, or somewhere in between.) This goal is just starting to become realistic, thanks to rapidly advancing genetic sequencing technology. Now we need to solve a pair of theoretical problems in order to translate all the new sequence data into evolutionary predictions.

First, we need to understand how to infer prevailing population dynamics from population genomic data. Second, given these patterns, we need to calculate the spectrum of possible evolutionary trajectories. Within these broad areas, our research is focused on how functional and statistical interactions among genes affect evolution, the role of spatial structure, and inferring the dynamics of microbial populations.

Research Lab Description

I build and analyze models of biological populations to predict their future evolution. Ultimately, we would like to understand evolution well enough that when, for example, a new antibiotic is developed, a reasonable number of experiments would be enough to learn how long it would take for bacteria to become resistant. This goal is just starting to become realistic due to rapid advances in sequencing technology. Now we need to solve a pair of theoretical problems in order to translate this sequence data into evolutionary predictions.