Philipp W. Messer
Principal Investigator
Philipp studied Physics and Human Physiology at the University of Cologne. After obtaining his Diploma in Theoretical Physics under the supervision of Michael Lassig, he pursued a doctorate with Martin Vingron and Peter Arndt at the Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin. He received his PhD in Computational Biology (summa cum laude) from the Department of Mathematics at the Free University Berlin. For his postdoc, Philipp worked in Dmitri Petrov’s lab at Stanford as a Human Frontiers Science Program (HFSP) long-term postdoctoral fellow. In 2014, he joined the Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology at Cornell University as an Assistant Professor. Research in Philipp’s lab centers on improving our understanding of the fundamental processes that govern molecular evolution.
Benjamin C. Haller
Scientific Programmer
Benjamin C. Haller works in the Messer Lab as a Scientific Programmer/Analyst, primarily on the SLiM forward genetic simulation package. He obtained his Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology from McGill University in 2013. Prior to his doctoral studies, Ben was as a software engineer and worked for many years at Apple. For more information, including academic publications and detailed CV, visit his website at: http://benhaller.com/.
Jackson Champer
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Jackson Champer is creating and modeling gene drive systems, which enable a genetic payload to spread through a population even when imposing a fitness cost on its host organism. Results so far indicate that resistance alleles are the limiting factor in the effectiveness of gene drives. He is interested in novel methods to control vector borne disease and hopes that gene drive will become a cost-effective approach to address this problem. Jackson received a M.S. in physics from UCLA and a Ph.D. from the City of Hope Graduate School of Biological Sciences. He joined the Messer lab at Cornell in May 2016.
Nathan Oakes
Graduate Student
Nathan is a first year PhD student in Computational Biology, where he leverages his background in electrical engineering and software development to investigate population genetics questions through modeling and development/support of high performance simulation and analysis software. He is interested in questions about complex and dynamical systems in general, and about fundamental processes involved in evolution and adaptation specifically.
Henry Kunerth
Graduate Rotation Student
Henry recently graduated from the University of Minnesota, where his work focused on phylogeography and host-parasite dynamics. Now a first year in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department at Cornell, Henry’s interests lie in speciation and the signatures of divergence and selection across the genome. As a part of the Presidential Life Sciences Fellowship, he is working on exploring genomic indicators of selection in wild, globally distributed populations of Drosophila using computational methods.
Anisha Luthra
Undergraduate Student
Anisha is a junior majoring in Biological Sciences with a concentration in Computational Biology. She hopes to use computational biology in genome sequencing to study how one’s DNA can make one prone to diseases, such as cancer, and to fix genetic mutations that lead to disease. She is involved in Alpha Phi Omega, a service fraternity that encourages community service and leadership development. She is also the External Event Chair of the Cornell Vegan Society. Anisha joined the lab in January 2017.
Joanna Zhao
Undergraduate Student
Joanna is a senior majoring in Biometry and Statistics with a concentration in Statistical Genomics. Joining the lab in summer 2017, Joanna is interested in the use of statistical modeling and frameworks to analyze the population dynamics of gene drive systems. She is a community group leader for Cru Cornell, and a member of Base Productions, a coed dance crew. She is also involved with the Cancer Resource Center, an organization that provides cancer patients with support and wellness programs.
Andrew Marderstein
Undergraduate Student
Former members:
Manisha Munasinghe: Graduate Rotation Student (CB)
Madeline Kwicklis: Undergraduate Student
Lewis Chesebrough: Undergraduate Student
Julian van der Made: Graduate Research Assistant
