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Profile

Prof. Sarah Otto

Affiliation

The University of British Columbia

Academy or College

Academy of Science

Year Elected

2006

Areas of Interest

Evolution, theory, mating system, genome, recombination

Long Citation
Sarah Otto is the foremost theoretical evolutionary biologist in Canada and one of the most respected in the world. Her research on the evolutionary forces that act on the structure of the genome has revealed novel and surprising insight into such fundamental aspects of an organism as the number of chromosomes present, sex and recombination rates along these chromosomes, and the nature of interactions among genes. Her research has demonstrated how these evolutionary forces depend on aspects of a species and its environment, helping to explain the remarkable diversity of life at the genomic level.

Short Citation
Sarah Otto is the foremost theoretical evolutionary biologist in Canada and one of the most respected in the world. Her research on the evolutionary forces that act on the structure of the genome has revealed novel and surprising insight into such fundamental aspects of an organism as the number of chromosomes present, sex and recombination rates along these chromosomes, and the nature of interactions among genes.