Profile

Clay Small is an evolutionary genomicist who studies the genetic underpinnings of traits and host-microbe interactions in animals, especially bony fishes. He currently works as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Data Science. Clay received his B.S. in Zoology from the University of Idaho in 2003, and after working as a wildlife ecologist for a few years he began graduate study with renowned evolutionary geneticist Adam Jones at Texas A&M University. His dissertation work on the evolution of reproductive proteins (particularly those associated with male pregnancy in seahorses and their relatives) coincided with the advent of next-generation sequencing. Clay did his postdoctoral work in Bill Cresko's Lab at the UO, and he continues collaborative work with the Institute of Ecology and Evolution to date. Since joining the University of Oregon Clay has enjoyed working on a diversity of genomics research projects and teaching graduate students about genomics, R, statistical inference, and data visualization, including several years with the Knight Campus Bioinformatics and Genomics Master's Program.