Dr. Elizabeth Cooper received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Southern California in 2011, then worked as a post-doc under Dr. Albert Uy at the University of Miami from 2011 to 2014. Afterwards, she became a research associate and Adjunct Assistant Professor at Clemson University with Dr. Stephen Kresovich, before joining the Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2018. Dr. Cooper is interested in using big data and high throughput sequencing to identify the genomic changes that lead to species diversification and adaptation. Her past research has covered flowering plants and tropical birds, but her most current work is focused on understanding how sweet varieties of the cereal crop Sorghum evolved their ability to accumulate stalk sugars, and what role structural mutations, such as duplications and rearrangements, have played in this process.
Degree Institution: University of Southern California
Degree: Ph.D. Molecular Biology
Link to Project Website: https://elizcooperlab.com/
Link to Publications: Google Scholar