Rachel O’Neill, Ph.D.

Professor O’Neill received her BA with Highest Honors in Zoology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1992 and her PhD in Genetics and Human Variation from La Trobe University in 1997. Dr. O’Neill is currently a Professor at the University of Connecticut in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, with a joint appointment in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at UConn Health. Prof. O’Neill serves as Director of the cross-campus Institute for Systems Genomics and serves as Director of the Center for Genome Innovation within the Institute for Systems Genomics. Prof. O’Neill received the CT Woman of Innovation Award, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award, and was a finalist for the CT Science Center STEM Achievement Award. She was recently elected to the CT Academy of Science and Engineering and appointed as a UConn Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor. Prof. O’Neill’s research programs leverage genomics, cytogenomic and computational approaches to study fundamental processes underlying genome function and evolution. Her comparative genomics approach encompasses several model and non-traditional systems, including human, non-human primates, carnivores, rodents, marsupials, Antarctic and deep-sea marine species, microbial communities, and infectious viral communities. She has participated in several genome consortia, including lead PI on the TE and Repeat annotation for the T2T (Human Telomere-to-Telomere) Project, Executive Member for the Earth Biogenomes Project, Member of both the KanGo and Koala Genome Consortia and currently serves as Director of the Deep Ocean Genomes project.