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Brandon Ogbunu

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C. Brandon Ogbunu(gafor)
2020 cartoon of Ogbunu from a joint video on SARS-Cov2
CitizenshipUSA
Alma materYale University
Howard University
Scientific career
Fieldsevolutionary biology, evolutionary medicine, complex systems, disease evolution and ecology, science and society
InstitutionsYale University
Harvard University
Brown University
University of Vermont
Santa Fe Institute
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ThesisRobustness, ecological history, and disease emergence : a study in RNA viruses (2009)
Doctoral advisorPaul E. Turner
Other academic advisorsDaniel L. Hartl

Susan Gottesman

Vernon R. Morris

C. Brandon Ogbunu(gafor) is an American computational biologist who is an Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University, and an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. He uses experimental and computational tools to understand the causes of disease, ranging from molecular underpinnings to the social determinants of public health. In addition, he runs a parallel research program at the intersection between science and culture, where he explores the social forces that craft science, and how sciences influences society.

Early life and education

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Ogbunu was born in New York City.[1] He credits his mother, a school teacher, with helping him to become a successful academic.[2] He studied chemistry at Howard University, graduating summa cum laude in 2002.[citation needed] He has said that it was during his undergraduate studies that he discovered the field of evolutionary biology, whilst reading the work of Stephen Jay Gould and Jane Goodall.[3] After graduating, he was awarded a United States Fulbright Fellowship, and moved to Kenya to study malaria at the International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology.[1] He then attended Yale University to study medicine and microbiology where his early interests were in pediatric infectious illness and child development, before joining the laboratory of Paul Turner because of Brandon's growing interest in evolution, epidemics, and game theory. Also while a student at Yale, Brandon was involved with advocacy around global health, and he worked with UNICEF in Laos and Angola to develop policy for early childhood development.[4] While at Yale, he was awarded a fellowship from the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies and a UNCF dissertation fellowship.[5]

Research and career

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After completing his doctoral studies, he moved to Harvard University and the Broad Institute, and was awarded Ford Foundation postdoctoral fellowship to study under Daniel Hartl, where he worked on systems biology and protein evolution.[4] In 2015, he accepted a position at University of Vermont, where he was awarded a George Washington Henderson Fellowship,[6] and eventually joining the faculty in the department of biology.

In 2018, Ogbunu was appointed an assistant professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology, Brown University, where he was a member of the Center for Computational Molecular Biology.[citation needed] In 2020, he joined the faculty at Yale University.[7][8] In 2022, he was elected to the external faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. Also in 2022, he was awarded Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology,[9][10] where he is hosted by Matthew Shoulders, and investigates the evolution of proteins and disease.[11]

Science and society

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Ogbunu operates a parallel research program as a writer and commentator at the intersection of science and society. He is an Ideas contributor for Wired[12] and has written for various other publications, just as The Atlantic, Andscape, Undark Magazine, Scientific American, and the Boston Review. His topics have ranged from Afrofuturism, the COVID-19 pandemic, to bioethics, to sports and epidemiology.

His currently a board member of the Genetics Society of America, the Metcalf Institute, and the Catalyst Collaborative at MIT, and a past member of the board of The Story Collider[13] and delivered a Story Collider presentation at the Evolution Meetings in 2019, entitled "The Liberation of RNA".[14] In 2018, he appeared on the Emmy Award-winning documentary web series Finding Your Roots: The Seedlings.[15] His research contributed to Kimberly Reed's 2022 documentary on gender.[16] He was also a contributor to a 2022 Undark Magazine special series on legacy of race science.[17]

Selected publications

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  • Robert C McBride; C Brandon Ogbunugafor; Paul E Turner (11 August 2008). "Robustness promotes evolvability of thermotolerance in an RNA virus". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 8: 231. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-8-231. ISSN 1471-2148. PMC 2518931. PMID 18694497. Wikidata Q36843864.
  • C Brandon Ogbunugafor; C Scott Wylie; Ibrahim Diakite; Daniel M Weinreich; Daniel L Hartl (January 2016). "Adaptive Landscape by Environment Interactions Dictate Evolutionary Dynamics in Models of Drug Resistance". PLOS Computational Biology. 12 (1): e1004710. doi:10.1371/JOURNAL.PCBI.1004710. ISSN 1553-734X. PMC 4726534. PMID 26808374. Wikidata Q28552806.
  • Francois X Omlin; John C Carlson; C Brandon Ogbunugafor; Ahmed Hassanali (1 December 2007). "Anopheles gambiae exploits the treehole ecosystem in western Kenya: a new urban malaria risk?". American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 77 (6 Suppl): 264–269. doi:10.4269/AJTMH.2007.77.264. ISSN 0002-9637. PMID 18165501. Wikidata Q39827444.
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References

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  1. ^ a b "Honoring Edward Bouchet, Class of 1870 HGS". Hopkins School. 2008-09-29. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  2. ^ Biography and Science w/ Brandon Ogbunu | Attribution Ep. 20, 12 December 2022, retrieved 2023-01-08
  3. ^ Nalbantoglu, Selin (2022-02-02). "Reptiles and viruses: New E&EB faculty lead research". Yale Daily News. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  4. ^ a b "IGI Seminar Series: Epistasis and Surprise: From Protein Space, to Drug(g)ability and Beyond". Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI). Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  5. ^ "[node:Title]". www.csrwire.com. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  6. ^ "Henderson-Harris Fellowship Program". www.uvm.edu. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  7. ^ "C. Brandon Ogbunu – Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs". Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  8. ^ "C. Brandon Ogbunu". medicine.yale.edu. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  9. ^ "Visiting Assistant Professor 2022-2023". 2022.
  10. ^ "C. Brandon Ogbunu named MLK Visiting Professor – MIT Department of Chemistry". 15 June 2022. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  11. ^ "Brandon Ogbunu: Living, loving, and landscapes". 2022-10-11.
  12. ^ "C. Brandon Ogbunu". WIRED. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  13. ^ "C. Brandon Ogbunu". The Story Collider. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  14. ^ "The Liberation of RNA". Radiolab Podcasts | WNYC Studios. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  15. ^ "Society for the Study of Evolution". www.evolutionsociety.org. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  16. ^ "Kimberly Reed • Director of The Gender Project". Cineuropa - the best of european cinema. 17 March 2022. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  17. ^ "Race and the American Museum of Natural History". race.undark.org. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
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