Wednesday, May 28
Genome Sciences Seminar: Dr. Krishna Niyogi | UC Berkeley
"Understanding and altering chloroplast photoprotection to improve photosynthesis"
3:30 | Foege Auditorium | flier | talk will be recorded | remote viewing option
Genome Sciences is pleased to announce that Dr. Saori Sakaue has accepted our offer to join the department as an assistant professor. Dr. Sakaue received her MD/PhD from the University of Tokyo, where she worked on genetic analyses of global biobanks. She conducted postdoctoral research with Soumya Raychaudhuri at Harvard, focusing on developing single-cell genomics tools to understand the role of genetic variants in gene regulation. Her lab will focus on developing and using statistical genetics tools to integrate molecular data for understanding disease mechanisms, ultimately addressing clinical challenges for future patients.
Genome Sciences is pleased to announce that Dr. William DeWitt has accepted our offer to join the department as an assistant professor. Dr. DeWitt was a graduate student with Kelley Harris and Frederick Matsen in Genome Sciences and the Fred Hutch Cancer Center, and a postdoctoral fellow with Yun Song at the University of California, Berkeley. Throughout his career, he has tackled computational and theoretical problems in evolutionary dynamics and quantitative immunology. His lab will pursue work in probabilistic and dynamical modeling, statistical inference, and machine learning, all grounded by questions about evolving biological systems.
Hannah Jordt (faculty), Deanna Plubell (postdoc), Sandra Pennington (staff), and Leah Anderson (student) have received the UW Genome Sciences Department Outstanding Service Award.
Introducing the 2025 Incoming Class:
Yuanye Chi - Tufts University / Jackson Lab
Max Dippel – UW / Boston University / Benaroya Research Institute
Kyra Fetter - UC San Diego
John Gourdeau - Dartmouth / Manifold Biotechnologies
Saksham Gupta - India Institute of Technology, Kanpur / FHCC
Michelle Johnson - Harvey Mudd College / Caltech
Allie Kreitman – UW MSTP
Tiger Lao - UC Santa Barbara / Chan Zuckerberg Biohub
Kayla Ly - UC Irvine
Valerie Lynch – University of Texas / UW Genome Sciences
Chris Oliveira – UW MSTP
Monica Padilla Galvez - National Autonomous University of Mexico / FHCC
Katrina Peterson - Northwestern University
Olivia Weissenfels - UW / Johns Hopkins
Morgan Wu – UW MSTP

Chris McGann and
Bo Wen have received graduate student awards at the
2025 ASMS Conference.
Abby McGee, Michelle Johnson, and Val Browning have been awarded NSF Fellowships. Matt Chaw, Marazzano Colon, Bria Metzger, Rachel Powell, and Catherine Sniezek have received honorable mention.
Connor Finkbeiner has been awarded an
NRSA Fellowship.


Anupama Jha, Mitchell Vollger, and
Ran Zhang have received
NHGRI K99 awards.

Cole Mueth and
Lizzie Plender have been awarded Parker Travel Awards for best poster at the 2024 department retreat.
Elliott Swanson has been awarded a
Curci Fellowship.
Syd Sattler, Renee Geck, Skylar Thompson, and Atom Lesiak have received the inaugural Genome Sciences Department Outstanding Service Award.
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