Sally Otto | |
|---|---|
| Born | Sarah Perin Otto (1967-10-23)October 23, 1967 (age 57) |
| Other names | Sally Otto |
| Alma mater | Stanford University (BS,PhD) |
| Awards |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Evolutionary biology[1] |
| Institutions | University of British Columbia University of Edinburgh |
| Thesis | Evolution in sexual organisms: the role of recombination, ploidy level, and nonrandom mating (1992) |
| Doctoral advisor | Marcus Feldman |
| Other academic advisors | Nick Barton |
| Website | www |
Sarah Perin OttoFRS FRSC (born October 23, 1967) is a theoretical biologist,Canada Research Chair in Theoretical and Experimental Evolution, and is currently aKillam Professor at theUniversity of British Columbia.[1][2] From 2008-2016, she was the director of the Biodiversity Research Centre at theUniversity of British Columbia.[3] Otto was named a 2011MacArthur Fellow.[4] In 2015 theAmerican Society of Naturalists gave her theSewall Wright Award for fundamental contributions to the unification of biology. In 2021, she was awarded theDarwin–Wallace Medal for contributing major advances to the mathematical theory of evolution.[5][6][7]
Otto received herBachelor of Science degree in 1988 and followed by herPhD in 1992 fromStanford University.[8]
She didpost-doctoral research withNick Barton at theUniversity of Edinburgh. Otto's research focus is a multi-pronged approach of population-genetic mathematical models and statistical tools to understand how evolutionary processes generate diverse biological features.[9] The core of her research revolves around analyzing mathematical models and exploring the insights they yield about how biological systems evolve. Dr. Otto is also the author of the book "A Biologist's Guide to Mathematical Modeling in Ecology and Evolution".[10] Through the analysis and development of stochastic models, Dr. Otto's colleagues and herself have shown how genes are transmitted across generations, the context in which genes are expressed, and how evolutionary constraints influence life trait evolution. The second major component of Dr. Otto's research involves the development of statistical tools such as likelihood-based approaches that allow them to infer how particular traits influence speciation and extinction. This allows us to answer questions such as: Do pollinators promote speciation of colorful flowers? Does genome size influence diversification? According to Otto, her research uses "mathematical models to clarify how features of an organism affect its potential for and rate ofadaptation. She also steps back to address why such features vary in the first place. Why is it that some species produce offspring primarily by cloning themselves, whereas others never do? Why do some species have largegenomes with manychromosomes, while others are streamlined?"[11] Otto's recent work has investigated thegenomic changes that underlie adaptation by yeast to harsh environmental conditions.[12]
Since 2013 Otto has been the director of the Liber Ero Fellowship[13] program, a post-doctoral fellowship program that supports early-career scientists to conduct and communicate research that informs conservation and management issues. In 2006 she co-founded the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution.[14] She has also served as the Vice-President and President forThe Society for the Study of Evolution, The American Society of Naturalists andThe European Society of Evolutionary Biology as well as a council member of The Society for the Study of Evolution and theAmerican Genetic Association.[15]