Joanna Rifkin
Computational Biologist
Old Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolJoanna Rifkin is a computational biologist and geneticist with nearly a decade of experience developing and deploying genetic resources for non-model species, now applying that expertise to sustainable cities and agriculture. She holds a PhD in Genetics and Genomics from Duke and has held research and leadership roles across academia and industry, including postdoctoral positions at the University of Toronto and University of Michigan and a current role at HudsonAlpha. Her work spans evolutionary genomics—studying sex chromosome evolution in Rumex—to practical genetics leadership in environmental labs, blending deep comparative-genomics skills with applied problem-solving. Based in Old Toronto, she pairs rigorous publication-driven research experience with hands-on project delivery, and brings an interdisciplinary background (including classics) that supports clear scientific communication and creative approaches to complex biological problems.
9 years of coding experience
2 years of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Genetics and Genomics, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Genetics and Genomics at Duke UniversityBA, cum laude with distinction, Biology, BA, cum laude with distinction, Biology at Amherst College
Github Skills (23)
genome-annotation9
genomes8
benchmarking7
pipeline7
prediction7
bioinformatics6
sequence5
goodness-of-fit5
genomics5
assembler5
annotator5
molecule4
genetic4
sequencing3
illumina3
Programming languages (5)
Github contributions (5)
joannarifkin/Rumex_genome
Oct 2019 - Jul 2020
Contributions:79 commits, 25 pushes in 8 months
joannarifkin/IpomoeaQstFst
May 2018 - Dec 2018
Contributions:14 commits, 9 pushes, 1 branch in 7 months
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