Sharon Browning

Sharon Browning is a Research Professor in the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Washington's School of Public Health. Her research focuses on developing computational methods for analyzing genetic data, particularly in population genetics and statistical genetics. She leads the Browning group, which creates tools like FLARE for local ancestry inference and identity-by-descent analysis.

Education:

• PhD in Statistics, University of Washington
• BSc (Hons) in Mathematics, University of Auckland

Research Interests: Dr. Browning develops stochastic models for genetic variation, including haplotype phasing, genotype imputation, and methods to detect identity-by-descent segments. Her work emphasizes computationally efficient algorithms for large-scale genomic data, with applications in population history and mutation rate estimation.

Publications: Her recent work explores topics like Denisovan ancestry, mutation rate refinement using IBD, and genetic privacy risks in consumer testing. Key contributions include the FLARE software for local ancestry inference and studies on ancient human population dynamics.

Awards & Roles: In 2021, she was named Senior Editor for the Statistical Genetics and Genomics section of GENETICS, reflecting her leadership in the field. Her research has been featured in Nature, NPR, and Discover Magazine.

Labs/Teams: She oversees the Browning Lab, which develops open-source software for genetic analysis, including tools like hap-ibd and sprime.