Lorin Crawford

I am a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research New England. I also maintain a faculty position in the School of Public Health as an Associate Professor of Biostatistics with an affiliation in the Center for Computational Molecular Biology at Brown University. The central aim of my research program is to build machine learning algorithms and statistical tools that aid in the understanding of how nonlinear interactions between genetic features affect the architecture of complex traits and contribute to disease etiology. An overarching theme of the research done in the Crawford Lab group is to take modern computational approaches and develop theory that enable their interpretations to be related back to classical genomic principles. Some of my most recent work has landed me a place on Forbes 30 Under 30 list and recognition as a member of The Root 100 Most Influential African Americans in 2019. I have also been fortunate enough to be awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship and a David & Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship for Science and Engineering. Prior to joining both MSR and Brown, I received my PhD from the Department of Statistical Science at Duke University where I was co-advised by Sayan Mukherjee and Kris C. Wood. As a Duke Dean’s Graduate Fellow and NSF Graduate Research Fellow I completed my PhD dissertation entitled: "Bayesian Kernel Models for Statistical Genetics and Cancer Genomics." I also received my Bachelors of Science degree in Mathematics from Clark Atlanta University.