Andrew Clark

Andrew Clark serves as the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Population Genetics in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and holds the position of Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator. He currently serves as interim chair of the Department of Computational Biology and is Associate Director of the Cornell Center for Comparative and Population Genomics (3CPG). His academic appointments include membership in the graduate fields of Genetics and Development, and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Dr. Clark received his B.S. in Biology and Applied Mathematics from Brown University (1976) and Ph.D. in Population Genetics from Stanford University (1980). His postdoctoral training included positions at Arizona State University and the University of Aarhus, Denmark, followed by a sabbatical at UC Davis. Prior to joining Cornell in 2002, he was a professor at Penn State University.

His research focuses on empirical and analytical problems in population genetics, particularly the genetic basis of complex traits through quantitative modeling of phenotypes as networks of interacting genes. Key research systems include humans (cardiovascular disease risk, genomic imprinting) and Drosophila (innate immunity, sperm competition, fat storage regulation, Y chromosome evolution). His work integrates single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis, gene expression measurements, and environmental perturbations to connect genotype to phenotype.

Dr. Clark's publication record demonstrates consistent contributions to evolutionary genomics, with recent work exploring circadian rhythm disruptions in Drosophila through seminal fluid proteins and rigorous analysis of vitamin D's relationship to COVID-19 outcomes. His research bridges molecular mechanisms with population-level evolutionary processes.

• Elected to National Academy of Sciences (2012)
• Honorary Doctorates from Oulu University (2009) and Aarhus University (2018)
• Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (1994/2000)
• NIH Study Section Member (1997)
• NATO and Marshall Postdoctoral Fellowships (1981)

Dr. Clark's research has been continuously supported by major funding bodies including the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, NATO, and the Marsden Fund. He serves on review panels for NIH, NSF, and the Max Planck Society, and previously served as President of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution and on the Council of the Genetics Society of America. He maintains an active Drosophila laboratory studying evolutionary genetics questions while collaborating on human genomics projects.

The Clark Lab at Cornell conducts interdisciplinary research at the intersection of computational biology, evolutionary genetics, and molecular biology, with particular emphasis on network approaches to complex trait analysis. The lab maintains strong connections with Celera Genomics (where Dr. Clark has consulted since 1999) and participates in university-wide genomics initiatives through the 3CPG center.