Become an IGB Fellow

The Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign offers a number of fellowships for truly exceptional young scholars who have completed their PhD within the last several years, and are looking for a stimulating and supportive interdisciplinary environment to carry out independent and collaborative research in the field of genomic biology. IGB Fellows will typically spend two to three years conducting research in one of several research themes in the institute, and ideally this research will also overlap with two or more of these thematic areas. An annual salary of $54,000 will be provided, with a yearly stipend of $7,500 to be used in support of research.

Fellows applications are currently closed. View previous IGB Fellows here.

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IGB FELLOWS

Rebecca Batstone

A native of Canada’s Capital Ottawa, Rebecca Batstone received her BSc (Honours) and MSc from Memorial University in Newfoundland where she conducted research on a variety of marine systems. Under the supervision of Dr. Suzanne Dufour, Rebecca’s masters research focused on a group of chemosymbiotic clams, the thyasirids, which house sulphur-oxidizing bacteria in their gills, periodically digesting them for food. For her PhD research, supervised by Dr. Megan Frederickson of the University of Toronto Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Rebecca switched to the legume-rhizobium system to study how symbiosis evolves and is maintained over evolutionary time.

Rebecca became an IGB fellow in September 2018. As an IGB fellow, she will team up with researchers working on diverse systems united by the Infection Genomics for One Health (IGOH) theme. She will pursue how beneficial symbiotic bacteria adapt to changing environmental conditions. More specifically, Rebecca will combine an experimental evolution approach with whole-genome resequencing to understand the underlying genetic mechanisms governing such adaptation, especially the role of horizontal gene transfer.
Abbas Bukhari

Abbas Bukhari completed his BS in Bioinformatics from the COMSATS University of Pakistan in 2009 and then came to the University of Illinois in 2010. He completed both Masters and Ph.D. degrees in bioinformatics in 2012 and 2018, respectively. After finishing his doctorate, he did his first postdoc with his Ph.D. advisor Prof. Alison Bell. He joined the IGB Gene Networks in Neural & Developmental Plasticity (GNDP) theme in February 2020.

Abbas is a computational biologist interested in the dynamic genome that responds to an animal's social environment and its evolution. He uses systems biology, and comparative genomics approaches to study the relationships between genes and behavior using both within-species (comparing different behaviors) and across species (comparing the same behavior in other species) comparisons. His notable studies include understanding the neurogenomic basis of aggressive and affiliative social interactions in male sticklebacks. As an IGB fellow, he is expanding on the cross-species aspects. He is interested in comparing the dynamic neuro-genome that responds to animals' social environment across distant species. He is currently working on comparing neurogenomic response to parental care in species spanning both vertebrates and invertebrates groups such as mammals (mouse, prairie voles), birds (rock doves), reptiles (poison frogs), fishes (sticklebacks), and insects (burying beetles and honey bees). This analysis can help understand the rules of natural selection and adaptation in the species that converge on the related behavioral traits due to similar ecological and social challenges.
Steven J. Burgess

Steven J. Burgess is from the United Kingdom. He received a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Edinburgh (2007) and completed a PhD in molecular biology at Imperial College London, investigating metabolic engineering of green algae for biohydrogen production (2011). He then went on to undertake postdoctoral research into the evolution of gene expression patterns underpinning C4 photosynthesis in the lab of Prof. Julian Hibberd at the University of Cambridge (2011-2017) and briefly worked as an editorial community manager at eLife Sciences Publications (2017-2018) before moving to Illinois.

Steven's interests are in plant synthetic biology and genomics with a view to improving photosynthesis as part of combined scientific, social and political approaches for sustainable boosting of crop yields. As a result he joined Prof. Stephen Long's lab in 2018 to work on the Gate's Funded Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) Project an is an IGB fellow in the Genomic Ecology of Global Change (GEGC) theme.
Cecilia Gentle

Cecilia Gentle earned her B.S. degree in Chemistry with minors in Mathematics and Physics from University of St. Thomas, in Saint Paul, Minnesota and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from University of Illinois. Working in the lab of Dr. Renske van der Veen, her Ph.D research focused on studying photothermal dynamics in novel nanoscale semiconductor materials via ultrafast X-ray absorption spectroscopy techniques. Her thesis work was done in collaboration with the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Lab. She also gained leadership experience as the first student in her Ph.D. research group.

During her Ph.D., Dr. Gentle was the Lead Commercialization Analyst at University of Illinois’ Office of Technology Management from 2018-2019. In addition to managing the other analysts, she screened intellectual property disclosures from faculty. She interfaced with inventors to evaluate new technologies, searched for prior art, and examined market sizes.

Dr. Gentle became an IGB Economic Development Fellow in 2020; in this role, she works with all the themes as part of IGB’s Office of External Relations and Strategic Partnerships to help track technical innovations and shepherd them through the Office of Technology Management and related translational activities.
Alisa M. King-Klemperer

Alisa King matriculated to the University of Illinois after completing her bachelor’s degree in microbiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2012. Working in the laboratory of Dr. Cari Vanderpool, she focused her thesis research on the improvement of small RNA (sRNA) target prediction and validation in Escherichia coli. Her approach combined both computational and experimental methods, and resulted in a computational pipeline called the sRNA-target Prediction Organizing Tool (SPOT.) She used the pipeline to identify novel mRNA targets of well-characterized sRNAs. She graduated with a Ph.D. in microbiology in 2019.

Dr. King became an IGB Science Writing Fellow in 2019; in this role, she contributes to print and online publications, reports on IGB research developments, designs outreach content, and provides other forms of writing support to IGB endeavors.
Diana Ranoa

Diana received her M.Sc. in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from the University of the Philippines–Diliman. In 2006, she moved to the United States to pursue her Ph.D. in Microbiology at the University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign under the direction of Dr. Richard I. Tapping (Dept. of Microbiology). Her graduate studies focused on understanding the mechanisms of microbial sensing and the dynamics of interaction among members of the Toll-like receptor 2 subfamily of innate immune receptors. In 2014, she joined Dr. Ralph R. Weichselbaum’s lab at the University of Chicago Dept. of Radiation and Cellular Oncology to investigate the RNA- and DNA-mediated tumor cell intrinsic response to ionizing radiation, and to define the molecular mechanisms that promote tumor proliferation and metastasis.

Diana joined Dr. Paul Hergenrother’s lab as an ACPP Cancer Center Illinois/IGB Fellow in November 2019. She will be investigating the ability of the synthetic drug PAC-1, in combination with immune checkpoint therapy, to enhance anti-tumor responses and improve immunologic memory for tumor cell recognition in animal models.
Stephen Schneider

Stephen Schneider received a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Nebraska—Lincoln in 2019. He received a Masters of Arts in Political Science from Kansas State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Fort Hays State University. His research interests fall under the umbrella of political psychology and bio-politics. Stephen’s dissertation investigated how those on the political left and right attribute traits and behaviors (e.g., homosexuality, obesity, conscientiousness, etc.) to different causes and what this relationship means for tolerance and reproductive policy attitudes. In other work, he and his colleagues have examined how threat influences conspiracy theory endorsement, what role the Behavioral Immune System plays in support for refugee resettlement programs, and whether there is an ideological asymmetry in identifying with novel groups.

In July 2020, Stephen became an IGB Fellow in the Genomic Security and Privacy (GSP) Theme under the supervision of Drs. Carl Gunter and Aleksander Ksiazkiewicz where he will investigate the technical, policy, and ethical concerns associated with genomic science.
Ananya Sen

Ananya Sen earned her B.S. degree in chemistry, zoology, and microbiology at Mount Carmel College in Bangalore, India. She also completed her master's degree in biology at the same institution. Working in the laboratory of Dr. James Imlay, Ananya studied how Escherichia coli responds to hydrogen peroxide stress. Specifically, she investigated the role of the Clp family of proteases. Ananya completed her Ph.D. in microbiology in 2020.

Ananya became an IGB Science Writing Fellow in 2020. She works on print and online publications, press releases, and provides writing and editing support for other IGB endeavors.
Bin Zhao

Bin Zhao obtained his B.S. degree from Shandong University in 2008 and Ph.D. degree from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences under the direction of Professor Chunhai Fan in 2014. His Ph.D. research focused on developing novel DNA-based functional nanostructures and their applications in biosensing, bioimaging and nanomedicine. He has conducted postdoctoral research for electrochemical DNA biosensors, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)-based analytical techniques, and DNA/RNA-based sensors for biosensing and cellular imaging in Germany and the United States (2014-2019).

In November 2019, he became an IGB fellow in the Center for Genomic Diagnostics (CGD) research theme under the supervision of Professor Brian T. Cunningham. He is currently working on the development of novel biosensors for digital assay of tumor biomarkers based on photonic crystal and nucleic acid nanotechnology.