Joshua Plotkin is the Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor of Natural Sciences. [CV]
Follow @jplotkin

Mari Kawakatsu completed her PhD in Applied Mathematics at Princeton University, on collective and emergent behavior in social systems. She is a JSFM Fellow and affiliate of the Penn Center for Mathematical Biology.

Wei Lu is a Master's student in Applied Mathematics and Computational Science.

Hiroake Okabe completed his Bachelor of Laws at Keio University before serving in Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Now a PhD student in Penn's Applied Math and Computational Science, Hiro is pursuing research at the intersection of evolutionary theory and law.

Anzhi Sheng is a long-term visiting PhD student from Peking University.

Guochen Wang is a long-term visiting PhD student from Peking University.

Taylor Kessinger completed his PhD in computational biology at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, on methods for detecting selection in rapidly adapting populations.

Alumni

Alex McAvoy is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the School of Data Science and Society at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Debora Princepe completed her PhD in Physics at Universidade Estadual de Campinas and is now a post-doc at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste.

Daniel Cooney is a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Mathematics at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Colin Twomey is now the intereim executive director of Penn's Data-Driven Discovery Institute.

Alfredo González-Espinoza (left) completed his PhD in Physics of complex systems, at U. Autónoma del Estado de Morelos. He is now a Research Data Librarian at Carnegie Mellon University.

Qi Su is a tenure-track Associate Professor in the Department of Automation at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Oana Carja is an Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science.

Andrew Tilman is a research scientists with the US Forest Service.

Mitchell Newberry is a fellow of the Michigan Society of Fellows and Assistant Professor of Complex Systems at the University of Michigan.

Arunas Radzvilavicius is an Editor at Nature Human Behaviour.

Jakub Otwinowski is a research fellow at Max Plank Institute, Gottingen.

Davorka Gulisija is an Assitant Professor of Biology at the University of New Mexico.

David McCandlish is an Associate Professor of Quantiative Biology at Cold Spring Harbor Labs.

Premal Shah is an Assistant Professor of Genetics at Rutgers University.

Grzegorz Kudla is a senior scientist in the MRC Human Genetics Group, at the University of Edinburgh.

Yang Ding is a post-doc in the Palsson lab at UCSD.

Helene Morlon is a permanent scientist of the CNRS, at École Normale Supérieure.

Michael Levy is an Associate Professor in the Biostatistics Department at the University of Pennsylvania.

Todd Parsons is a permanent scientist of the CNRS, at Université Pierre et Marie Curie.

Alex Stewart is Senior Lecturer at University of St. Andrews.

Sergey Kryazhimskiy is an Associate Professor of Biology at UCSD.

Alison Feder is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genome Sciences (Summer 2021).

Jeremy Draghi is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Virgnia Tech.

Ricky Der completed his PhD in Mathematics at Penn, on generalized Markov models in population genetics.

Etienne Rajon is a Maître de Conférences at University of Lyon.

Anchal Vishnoi is a lecturer at JNU, Delhi.

Sebastian Akle is a graduate student in Organismal and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard.

David Bostick completed his PhD in Physics at UNC, on molecular dynamics simulations of biomembranes.

Gasper Tkacik is a Professor at the Institute of Science and Technology, Austria.

Serena Rezny received her Master's in Applied Math at Penn, and is a PhD student in Statistics at Univeristy of Chicago.

Daril Vilhena recently received his PhD in Biology from the University of Washington.

Postdocs

Postdoctoral fellowships (2-3 years) are available in the mathematical biology group of Joshua Plotkin at the University of Pennsylvania. The specific research project is flexible and can be tailored to the interests of the individual, but it will fall under the broad purview of evolutionary and ecological theory. Areas of interest in the Plotkin lab include theoretical population genetics, the evolutionary ecology of viral populations, the evolution of cooperation, social norms, institutions, and decision-making.

Requirements for the position include: a record of self-motivated research; a PhD in mathematics, statistics, physics, biology or related area; strong communication and writing skills. The ideal candidate should also be familiar with scientific programming.

The postdoctoral fellowships provides a competitive annual stipend plus benefits and health insurance. Start date and term are negotiable. Applicants of any nationality are encouraged to email a statement of research interests, CV, and contact details for three references to jplotkin (at) sas.upenn.edu. Informal inquiries are also welcomed. Applications from under-represented groups are especially encouraged.

Graduate Students

Students interested in graduate study in evolutionary and ecological theory are encouraged to contact Dr. Plotkin. Students may matriculate through one of several Penn graduate groups: Biology Department, Genomics & Computational Biology, Computer Science, or Applied Mathematics. Please email your CV to Dr. Plotkin, along with a cover letter explaining why you want to join the group.

Undergraduate Students

Students with a quantitative background and an interest in evolution or ecology are encouraged to contact Dr. Plotkin regarding the possibility of term-time or summer projects. Send an email explaining what you hope to get out of research with our lab, along with CV, to jplotkin (at) sas.upenn.edu.

Contact