Nick Patterson (scientist)

For other people named Nick Patterson, see Nick Patterson (disambiguation).

Nick Patterson
Born
Nicholas James Patterson

(1947-06-09)June 9, 1947
EducationUniversity of Cambridge
Known forNeanderthal genome project
Scientific career
FieldsGenetics
InstitutionsBroad Institute
Thesis On Conway's Group .O and Some Other Groups  (1973)
Doctoral advisorJohn G. Thompson

Nicholas James Patterson (born 9 June 1947)[1] is a mathematician working as a staff scientist at the Broad Institute with notable contributions to the area of computational genomics.[2][3] His work has appeared in scientific journals such as Nature, Science and Nature Genetics.[4][5] His research has brought a better understanding of early human migrations.[6][7] He is among the group of scientists who have sequenced the Neanderthal genome in 2010.[8] This was followed by the sequencing of a much higher quality Neanderthal genome, where the subject was from the Altai Mountains, in 2014.[9] These studies have uncovered some unexpected facts about the interbreeding between archaic and modern humans.

Biography

Patterson was an only child who grew up in the Bayswater section of central London.[10] Patterson received his B.A. and Ph.D. in mathematics at Cambridge University.[3] His doctoral advisor was John G. Thompson.[11] He initially worked for the British code-breaking agency GCHQ and the Center for Communications Research in Princeton.[12]

Following this cryptology work, Patterson worked at the quantitative trading firm Renaissance Technologies.[13]

In 2001, Patterson joined the Center for Genome Research at MIT, the Whitehead Institute. He briefly worked on gene expression data applied to cancer before switching to the study of human genetics.[3]

In 2012, Patterson developed ADMIXTOOLS, a software package written in C that is currently widely used by population geneticists.[14]

Chess

Nick Patterson was a child chess prodigy.[2] He won the Irish Chess Championship in 1969. In a long game in the Chess Olympiad of Siegen in 1970, where he played top board for Ireland, he met the Danish grandmaster Bent Larsen, who was one of the top 10 players in the world at the time, and managed to make a draw after 93 moves.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b "Nicholas J Patterson". chessgames.com.
  2. ^ a b Chen, Ingfei (12 December 2006). "Nick Patterson: A Cold War Cryptologist Takes a Crack at Deciphering DNA's Deep Secrets". The New York Times.
  3. ^ a b c "Nick Patterson". Broad Institute. April 2012.
  4. ^ "Nick Patterson". scholar.google.com.
  5. ^ "Nick Patterson". ScienceMag.org. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  6. ^ Skoglund, Pontus; Thompson, Jessica C.; Prendergast, Mary E.; Mittnik, Alissa; Sirak, Kendra; Hajdinjak, Mateja; Salie, Tasneem; Rohland, Nadin; Mallick, Swapan; Peltzer, Alexander; Heinze, Anja; Olalde, Iñigo; Ferry, Matthew; Harney, Eadaoin; Michel, Megan; Stewardson, Kristin; Cerezo-Román, Jessica I.; Chiumia, Chrissy; Crowther, Alison; Gomani-Chindebvu, Elizabeth; Gidna, Agness O.; Grillo, Katherine M.; Helenius, I. Taneli; Hellenthal, Garrett; Helm, Richard; Horton, Mark; López, Saioa; Mabulla, Audax Z.P.; Parkington, John; Shipton, Ceri; Thomas, Mark G.; Tibesasa, Ruth; Welling, Menno; Hayes, Vanessa M.; Kennett, Douglas J.; Ramesar, Raj; Meyer, Matthias; Pääbo, Svante; Patterson, Nick; Morris, Alan G.; Boivin, Nicole; Pinhasi, Ron; Krause, Johannes; Reich, David (2017). "Reconstructing Prehistoric African Population Structure". Cell. 171 (1): 59–71.e21. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2017.08.049. PMC 5679310. PMID 28938123.
  7. ^ Sankararaman, S.; Patterson, N.; Li, H.; Pääbo, S.; Reich, D; Akey, J.M. (2012). "The Date of Interbreeding between Neandertals and Modern Humans". PLOS Genetics. 8 (10): e1002947. arXiv:1208.2238. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1002947. PMC 3464203. PMID 23055938.
  8. ^ Green RE, Krause J, Briggs AW, Maricic T, Stenzel U, Kircher M, Patterson N, Li H, Zhai W, Fritz MH, Hansen NF, Durand EY, Malaspinas AS, Jensen JD, Marques-Bonet T, Alkan C, Prüfer K, Meyer M, Burbano HA, Good JM, Schultz R, Aximu-Petri A, Butthof A, Höber B, Höffner B, Siegemund M, Weihmann A, Nusbaum C, Lander ES, Russ C, Novod N, Affourtit J, Egholm M, Verna C, Rudan P, Brajkovic D, Kucan Z, Gusic I, Doronichev VB, Golovanova LV, Lalueza-Fox C, de la Rasilla M, Fortea J, Rosas A, Schmitz RW, Johnson PL, Eichler EE, Falush D, Birney E, Mullikin JC, Slatkin M, Nielsen R, Kelso J, Lachmann M, Reich D, Pääbo S (7 May 2010). "Draft full sequence of Neanderthal Genome". Science. 328 (5979): 710–22. Bibcode:2010Sci...328..710G. doi:10.1126/science.1188021. PMC 5100745. PMID 20448178.
  9. ^ Prüfer, K.; Racimo, F.; Patterson, N.; Jay, F.; Sankararaman, S.; Sawyer, S.; et al. (2014) [Online 2013]. "The complete genome sequence of a Neanderthal from the Altai Mountains". Nature. 505 (7481): 43–49. Bibcode:2014Natur.505...43P. doi:10.1038/nature12886. PMC 4031459. PMID 24352235.
  10. ^ Chapter 8; The Man Who Solved the Market by Gregory Zuckerman
  11. ^ "Nicholas Patterson - the Mathematics Genealogy Project".
  12. ^ "The Man Who Breaks Codes". Radcliffe Magazine. 30 January 2017. Archived from the original on 1 July 2019.
  13. ^ Mayer, Jane (19 March 2017). "The Reclusive Hedge-Fund Tycoon Behind the Trump Presidency". The New Yorker.
  14. ^ Patterson N, Moorjani P, Luo Y, Mallick S, Rohland N, Zhan Y, Genschoreck T, Webster T, Reich D (November 2012). "Ancient admixture in human history". Genetics. 192 (3): 1065–93. doi:10.1534/genetics.112.145037. PMC 3522152. PMID 22960212.