New Faculty: Xinzhu (April) Wei

Xinzhu (April) Wei

Assistant Professor, Computational Biology

Academic focus:
Population genetics, evolutionary genetics

Current research project: 
Developing methods for inferring demographic history from whole-genome sequences; developing a method for inferring selection coefficients from SARS-CoV-2 time-series data; investigating the impact of Neanderthal introgression on human physiology and human evolution.

Previous positions: 

• Postdoc, Departments of Computer Science, Human Genetics, and Computational Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, 2020-2021
• Postdoc, Departments of Integrative Biology and Statistics, University of California, Berkeley, 2018-2020

Academic background: 

• Ph.D., Ecology and evolutionary biology, University of Michigan, 2018
• B.S., Biology, Fudan University, Shanghai, China, 2013

Last book read:
“The Code Breaker” by Walter Issacson

In your own time/when not working:
Traveling, hiking, enjoying water sports, binge-reading books and binge-watching TV, helping animal welfare

Courses you’re most looking forward to teaching:
Coalescent theory; computational genetics

What most excites you about Cornell:
The people, the culture, and the research atmosphere

Twitter handle:
@AprilWei001