AAAG 2014 Student Prize Winners

The AAAG awarded student prizes to Tim Webster (Yale University) and Genevieve Housman (Arizona State University) for their outstanding presentations in anthropological genetics at the 2014 meetings of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists (AAPA) and Human Biology meetings in Calgary, Canada. Each award recipient received a $200 cash prize and a one-year subscription to Human Biology.

Award for best oral presentation

Tim Webster

Tim Webster is a PhD candidate under the mentor-ship of Dr. David Watts (primary) and Dr. Brenda Bradley in the Department of Anthropology at Yale University. He is broadly interested in primate evolutionary genomics. His dissertation research involves using genomics to understand speciation and adaptation in the recent, rapid radiation of the macaques (genus Macaca). In addition, he is currently involved in a project with Dr. Brenda Bradley (Yale University) and Dr. Richard Lawler (James Madison University), exploring the population and evolutionary genomics of Verreaux’s sifakas (Propithecus verreauxi) at Bezà Mahafaly Reserve in southwestern Madagascar.

presentation title: Gene loss and protein evolution in Propithecus verreauxi detected using exome sequencing and de novo assembly

presentation authors: Tim Webster, Richard Lawler, and Brenda J. Bradley

Award for best poster presentation

Genevieve Houseman

Genevieve Housman is a graduate student at Arizona State University in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, pursuing a doctoral degree in Evolutionary Anthropology. Her interests center on the evolution of complex traits within the primate lineage. Specifically, she plans to study the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms that influence differential long bone development and maintenance in primates so as to gain insights into the evolution of this trait. She hopes to focus on identifying DNA methylation and gene expression variation in baboons with and without osteoarthritis and osteoporosis, phenotypes which serve as proxies for normal and abnormal skeletal maintenance. She is also involved in several other projects in the Laboratory of Molecular Anthropology at ASU which aim at understanding if and where natural non-human primate reservoirs of zoonotic microbial pathogens, specifically Mycobacterium tuberculosis and M. leprae, exist and whether these reservoirs and pathways are recent phenomena or have longer histories. After successfully defending her dissertation, she hopes to pursue an academic career that balances both research and teaching endeavors.

poster title: Validation of qPCR Methods for the Detection of Mycobacterium in New World Animal Reservoirs

presentation authors: Genevieve Housman, Vanner Boere, Adriana D. Gravitol, Joanna Malukiewicz, Luiz Cezar Machado Pereira, Luz-Andrea Pfister, Ita de Oliveira Silva, Carlos C. Ruiz-Miranda, Richard Truman, and Anne C. Stone