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Elena Rivas

Senior Scientist
Contact Me

I come from Zaragoza, Spain, best described to Americans as a town between Madrid and Barcelona. I did both my B.S. (1986) and Ph.D (1990) in theoretical physics at the University of Zaragoza.  I first came to the States to do a postdoc in Physics that took me first to UCLA and later to Washington University in Saint Louis (1990-1992).

In 1997, I serendipitously started working in computational biology with Sean Eddy in Saint Louis, while I was waiting to go to Medical School at Washington University. I never made it to Medical School, and I am still working in computational biology with Sean. We both moved to Janelia at its opening in July 2006. Professionally, my comfort zone is in the interplay between mathematical modeling and software implementation. Personally, I have a passion for movies and running, though while my two children grow up, that passion has been somewhat restricted to Pixar, Miyazaki, and weekend runs with the girls in a tandem running stroller.

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