Julie Granka

Julie Granka is a biologist and a statistician with expertise in genetics and evolution who currently serves as the Director of Personalized Genomics at Ancestry.com. Dr. Granka has experience developing and applying advanced computational tools to genetic data to understand population history and evolution. During fieldwork in South Africa, she collected and analyzed DNA samples from an African hunter-gatherer population to uncover the genetic basis of human height and skin pigmentation. Dr. Granka has also analyzed numerous other African populations to identify regions of the human genome where positive natural selection has occurred in recent history. In addition, she has studied the genetics of other organisms, including M. tuberculosis, the organism that causes tuberculosis. Dr. Granka received a B.S. in Biometry and Statistics from Cornell University where she worked with Dr. Carlos Bustamante. Afterwards, she received an M.S. in Statistics and a Ph.D. in Biology with Dr. Marcus Feldman at Stanford University.