Population Geneticist - Dr. Alex Sandercock '19

Alumnus overview:

Dr. Alex Sandercock is a population geneticist with Breeding Insight at Cornell University. He holds a PhD in Genetics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology from Virginia Tech and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Millersville University. While an undergraduate student, he participated in research studying marine juvenile fish populations and threats impacting endangered species. In his graduate work, he evaluated the landscape genomics of natural and breeding populations of American chestnut trees in North America to develop germplasm conservation and breeding plans for the species to mitigate the impacts of climate change. In his role as a Genomics Postdoc with Breeding Insight, he collaborates with USDA-ARS breeders and team members to create new software tools and genomics resources to benefit specialty plant and animal breeding programs.

 

Advice to current & future MU biology students:

"MU Biology has many different faculty covering a wide range of research specialties. Take advantage of this valuable resource and speak with faculty about their research interests. It was through these conversations that I found opportunities to participate in research and ultimately discovered my career direction."