Jack O'Brien

Jack O'Brien is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Bowdoin College. His research focuses on statistical genetics, molecular evolution, and bioinformatics, particularly in malaria and microbial systems. He holds a PhD in Biomathematics from UCLA (2008) and a BA in Mathematics from Pomona College (2002). His work integrates advanced statistical methods with genomic data to study pathogen diversity, population structure, and drug resistance.

Education:

• PhD, Biomathematics, University of California-Los Angeles, 2008
• BA, Mathematics (Honors), Pomona College, 2002

Research Interests:

O’Brien develops statistical models to analyze genomic data from rapidly evolving pathogens like Plasmodium falciparum. His work addresses challenges in estimating evolutionary parameters, detecting strain mixtures in clinical samples, and understanding population dynamics. Recent projects involve Bayesian methods for voting bloc analysis and ecological pattern detection in archaeological datasets.

Awards:

• Royal Society International Travel Grant (2009)
• UC Chancellor’s Fellowship (2003-2004, 2007-2008)
• NIH Systems and Integrative Biology Fellowship (2004-2007)
• Fulbright Scholar (Norway, 2002-2003)
• Pomona College Mathematics Honors Thesis (2002)

Teaching & Grants:

• Current courses: MATH 1300 (Introduction to Statistics and Computation) and MATH 2606 (Statistics Education)
• Grants include NIH funding for malaria genomics and UC support for biomathematical research

Labs/Teams:

Collaborates with malaria research consortia (e.g., MalariaGEN) and interdisciplinary teams in bioinformatics, ecology, and archaeology.