Dr. Sriram Sankararaman is a distinguished scholar whose pioneering work bridges computational science and biomedical research. He currently serves as Professor of Computer Science, Human Genetics, and Computational Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he leads an interdisciplinary research group tackling fundamental questions at the intersection of technology and biology. Dr. Sankararaman earned his Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 2004 followed by a PhD in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2010 under the guidance of esteemed researchers Michael Jordan and Kimmen Sjolander. After completing his postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School with David Reich he joined UCLA's faculty in November 2015 establishing himself as a rising star in computational genomics before advancing to his current professorial position.
Dr. Sankararaman's transformative research program focuses on developing sophisticated machine learning algorithms to analyze complex genomic and clinical datasets with the broad goal of understanding the intricate relationships between evolutionary history genomic variation and human traits. His groundbreaking work on inferring archaic admixture in modern human populations has provided critical insights into how Neandertal and Denisovan genetic contributions shape present-day human genomes including his development of a discriminative statistical model for mapping archaic local ancestry across diverse populations. This research has documented fine-scale variations in archaic ancestry across global populations and along the genome revealing patterns driven by natural selection on archaic alleles that have significant implications for human evolutionary biology. His methodological innovations in statistical genetics and computational biology have established new frameworks for analyzing large-scale genomic data influencing how researchers approach the study of human genetic variation and its relationship to health and disease.
Beyond his specific research findings Dr Sankararaman has emerged as a key intellectual leader in the rapidly evolving field of computational biomedicine receiving prestigious recognition including the NSF CAREER Award a Sloan Research Fellowship and a Simons Institute Fellowship at the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, University of California, Berkeley, in 2014. His work continues to advance our understanding of the genetic basis of complex traits through the analysis of biobank-scale data addressing significant statistical and computational challenges in the process. As both an educator and researcher he trains the next generation of computational biologists while fostering collaborative research that bridges traditionally separate disciplines. Professor Sankararaman's ongoing investigations promise to further illuminate the connections between human evolutionary history genomic architecture and phenotypic diversity with potential applications that could transform precision medicine and our fundamental understanding of human biology.
