Susan Ptak
130 Solana Dr.
Santa Fe, NM 87501
United States of America
susan.ptak@utexas.edu
+1-505-920-9840
Languages: English (native), German (intermediate)
Skills: Data analytics (collecting, organizing, manipulating and cleaning up data, basic statistics, data visualization), Computer programming (R, C. Perl), Computer simulations, Biology (especially Population Biology), Overseeing/managing projects, Verbal and written communication, Curiosity to learn new topics
Education | |
2004 - 2006 | Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany Postdoctoral fellow under Svante Pääbo |
2002 - 2003 | Interdisciplinary Center for Bioinformatics, Leipzig, Germany Postdoctoral fellow under Molly Przeworski |
1996 - 2001 | Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA Ph.D. in Biological Sciences under Marcus W. Feldman |
1992 - 1996 | Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA B.S. in Honors Biology with a minor in mathematics |
Employment | |
2022-present | Covid-19 ModelingConsortium, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA Researcher including overseeing undergraduate researchers |
2010-present | Mother |
2007-2010 | Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany Research Associate |
Summers 1998-2001 | Lecturer in statistics for high school students and teachers |
Summers 1994-1997 | Resident assistant and instructor in math/biology for high school students NSF-HHMI Young Scholars Program |
Fall 1994 – Spring 1996 | Teaching Assistant for genetics Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA |
Spring 1994 – Summer 1996 | Independent research in population genetics under R. William Marks Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA |
Other Teaching and Research Experience (see also Employment) | |
Spring 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010 | Guest Lecturer, Human Molecular Genetics and Evolution Class Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany |
Summer 2004 | Mentored and oversaw a summer intern, Julia Klopotek Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany |
2002-2003 | Mentored and oversaw a diploma thesis, Stephanie Kaube Interdisciplinary Center for Bioinformatics, Leipzig, Germany |
Summer 1999 | Summer School in Complex Systems Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA |
Fall 1998, Spring 1997, Winter 1997 | Teaching assistant in introductory biology, behavioral ecology and biostatistics. Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA |
Summer 1993 | Research assistant to Nicholas R.S. Hall and associates Psychoimmunology Division, University South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA |
Honors and Grants | |
2002 | Interdisciplinary Center for Bioinformatics Research Grant |
1999 | Centennial Teaching Assistant Award, Stanford University |
1996 - 2001 | Howard Hughes Medical Research predoctoral fellowship |
1996 | National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship, declined |
1996 | Mendel Medallion, Academic Excellence in Sciences, Villanova University |
1996 | Gallen Award, Service and Achievement in Biology, Villanova University |
1995 - 1996 | Goldwater Scholar scholarship |
1992 - 1996 | Villanova Scholar scholarship |
Invited Talks | |
October 2008 | The story of FOXP2: Insights into detecting selection Evolution, Ecology and Systematics Lecture Series for First Years University of Munich, Munich, Germany |
July 2006 | Linkage disequilibrium and recombination detection BBSRC Summer School on Molecular Evolution & Diversity, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland |
December 2003 | Effect of study design on allele frequency spectrum in humans. |
October 2000 | How much variation can a model of balancing selection maintain? |
Publications | |
Ptak, S.E. et al. 2023. Survey of Covid-19 Stage Alert Systems from March 2020-August 2021. In prep. | |
Prüfer, K....[32]...Ptak, S.E., ...[6]...Pääbo, S. 2012. Bonobo genome compared with the chimpanzee and human genomes. Nature 486:527-531. | |
Fischer, A., Prüfer, K., Good, J.M., Halbwax, M., Wiebe, V., André, C., Atencia, R., Mugisha, L., Ptak, S.E., Pääbo, S. 2011. Bonobos fall within the genomic variation of chimpanzees. PLoS ONE 6(6): e21605. | |
Ptak, S.E., Enard, W., Wiebe, V., Hellmann, I., Krause, J., Lachmann, M., Pääbo, S. 2009. Linkage disequilibrium extends across putative selected sites in FOXP2. Molecular Biology and Evolution 26(10):2181-2184. | |
Clark, V.J., Ptak, S.E., Tiemann, I., Qian, Y., Coop, G., Stone, A.C., Przeworski, M., Arnheim, N., Di Rienzo, A. 2007. Combining sperm typing and linkage disequilibrium analyses reveals differences in selective pressures or recombination rates across human populations. Genetics 175: 795–804. | |
Green, R.E., J. Krause, S.E. Ptak, A.W. Briggs, M.T. Ronan, J.F. Simons, L. Du, M. Egholm, J.M. Rothberg, M. Paunovic, S. Pääbo. 2006. Analysis of one million base pairs of Neanderthal DNA. Nature 444: 330-336. | |
Hellmann, I., K. Prüfer, H. Ji, M.C. Zody, S. Pääbo, S.E. Ptak. 2005. Why do human diversity levels vary at a megabase scale? Genome Research 15: 1222-1231. | |
Ptak, S.E., D.A. Hinds, K. Koehler, B. Nickel, N. Patil, D.G. Ballinger, M. Przeworski+, K.A. Frazer+, S. Pääbo+. 2005. Fine-scale recombination patterns differ between chimpanzees and humans. Nature Genetics 37: 429-434. | |
Ptak, S.E.+, A.D. Roeder+, M. Stephens, Y. Gilad, S. Pääbo and M. Przeworski. 2004. Absence of the TAP2 human recombination hotspot in chimpanzees. PLoS 2: 849-855. | |
Ptak, S.E., K. Voelpel, M. Przeworski. 2004. Insights into recombination from patterns of linkage disequilibrium in humans. Genetics 167: 387-397. | |
Hellmann, I. I. Ebersberger, S.E. Ptak, S. Pääbo, and M. Przeworski. 2003. A neutral explanation for the correlation of diversity with recombination rates in humans. American Journal of Human Genetics 72: 1527-1535. | |
Ptak, S.E. and M. Przeworski. 2002. Evidence for population growth in humans is confounded by fine-scale population structure. Trends in Genetics 18: 559-563. | |
Ptak, S.E. and M. Lachmann. 2002. On the evolution of polygamy: a theoretical examination of the polygamy threshold model. Behavioral Ecology 14:201-211. | |
Ptak, S.E. and D. Petrov. 2002. How intron splicing affects the insertion and deletion profile in Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics 162: 1233-1244. | |
Marks, R.W. and S.E. Ptak. 2001. The maintenance of single-locus polymorphism. V. Sex-dependent viabilities. Selection 1: 217-228. |
+ These authors contributed equally.