Judith E. Mank

Judith Elizabeth Mank is an American-British-Canadian zoologist who is a Canada 150 Chair at the University of British Columbia. She studies how evolution produces variation in animals. She is known for her studies of sex chromosomes and the genetic basis of sexual dimorphism. Her research has focused on various animals to study how sexual selection influences gene expression and genomic architecture.

Early life and education Mank studied anthropology at the University of Florida. She moved to Pennsylvania State University for graduate studies, joining the School of Forest Resources.

Research and career Following her postdoctoral work at Uppsala University, Mank was a lecturer at the University of Oxford from 2008-2012, and then professor at University College London from 2012-2018. She joined the faculty at the University of British Columbia in 2018 as a professor and Canada 150 Chair in Evolutionary Genomics. Her research includes the evolution of sex chromosomes and the genetics underlying sex differences. Her work has revealed fundamental properties of the earliest stages of Y chromosomes formation. Mank makes use of genomic data to understand how ecological factors, such as sexual selection, effect genome evolution, and how sex differences are encoded within the genome. She has studied the genetics of female mate preference in guppies, and how this affects the diversity and genetics of pigmentation in males.

Awards and honors 2008 American Society of Naturalists Young Investigator Award 2009 Society for the Study of Evolution Dobzhansky Prize 2013 Berlin Institute for Advanced Study Fellow 2013 Zoological Society of London Scientific Medal 2016 Royal Society Wolfson Fellowship 2020 Uppsala University Honorary Doctorate

Selected publications