Samantha J. Snodgrass, Condensed CV

2320 Storer Hall, Dept. Evolution and Ecology, One Shields Ave, Davis, CA 95616

Email: ssnodgrass @ ucdavis.edu

Research Website: https://snodgras.github.io/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-snodgrass-genome-biologist/

Research Experience

NSF Post Doctoral Fellow, University of California Davis (Feb. 2024—current)

• Performed computational analyses in population genetics

Graduate Research Assistant, Iowa State University (Aug. 2017 –Jan. 2024)

• Created, managed, and completed major projects involving field experiments and high throughput computational bioinformatics
• Trained and mentored five undergraduate and two graduate students

Undergraduate Research Assistant, Wendel Lab, Iowa State University (June – Aug. 2015)

• Conducted microscopy research on Gossypium cell size

Mentored Advanced Project (MAP) on Sustainability in Grinnell (Jan. 2015- May 2016)

• Reviewed literature on storm water management and landscaping for campus master landscape plan
• Designed and implemented qualitative survey and interviews

Teaching Experience

Teaching Assistant of BIOL312L: Ecology Lab, Iowa State University (Fall semester 2023)

• Led and facilitated ecology laboratories for ~40 upper-level undergraduates focused on data analysis and scientific writing skills

Instructor of Record of BIOL315: Evolution, Iowa State University (Spring semester 2023)

• Revised and presented all lectures for a class of ~130 upper-level undergraduates
• Created new assignments in collaboration with TA to better fulfill learning objectives

Teaching Assistant of BIOL315: Evolution, Iowa State University (Fall semester 2022)

• Assisted in grading and creating assessments

Guest Lecture on Plant Anatomy, Iowa State University (Sept. 20, 2021)

• Uploaded to Coursera as part of the Introduction to Predictive Plant Phenomics Class

Partners in Education Post-Baccalaureate Fellow, Grinnell College (Jan. 2017 – May 2017)

• Provided tutoring and support for at-risk first year undergraduate students

Undergraduate Biology Mentor, Grinnell College

• Biology: Molecules, Cells, and Organisms soph. level (Fall semester 2014, 2015)
• Biology: Organisms, Evolution and Ecology soph. level (Spring semester 2016)
• Led twice weekly, hour long mentor sessions with a flipped learning model

Service

Iowa State University, Ames, IA

• President of Ecology Evolution and Organismal Biology GSO (Aug. 2022 – Aug. 2023)
• Vice President of Ecology Evolution and Organismal Biology GSO (May 2020 – May 2022)
• Seminar Chair of Ecology Evolution and Organismal Biology GSO (May 2021 – May 2022 )
• Social Media Chair of P3 GSO Board, (May 2019 – May 2020)
• President of Interdepartmental Plant Biology GSO, (Jan. – Dec. 2019)
• Vice President of Interdepartmental Plant Biology GSO, (Jan. – Dec. 2018)

MaizeGDB Editorial Board

• Editorial Contributor (Jan. 2020 – Dec. 2021)

Maize Genetics Meeting Steering Committee

• Elected Graduate Student Representative (Mar. 2021 – Mar. 2022)

Miscellaneous

• Volunteer for Plant Science Saturday hosted by ASPB at Plant Biology 2025, South Shore Farmer’s Market, Milwaukee, WI (July 26, 2025)
• Panelist on “Demystifying the NSF Application Process” hosted by ASPB ECPS (Sept. 13, 2024) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EueCG-HpWrQ
• Panelist on “Navigating Your Fellowship Application” hosted by ASPB ECPS DEI committee (Sept. 17, 2021)

Grants

NSF Post-doctoral Research Fellowship Program Biology (Feb. 2024-Jan. 2027) Awarded (IOS-#2305694)

• $240,000 funding available

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Fellow (May 2019-May 2022) Awarded

• $138,000 funding available

Fellowships, Scholarships, Awards

1. Iowa State University Research Excellence Award (Dec 2023)
2. EEOB Graduate Student Research Excellence Award (May 2023)
3. EEOB Graduate Student Service Award Honorable Mention (May 2022)**
4. Preparing Future Faculty Associate (May 2021)
5. Predictive Plant Phenomics Peer Mentoring Award, Iowa State University (May 2020)
6. 2020 ASPB Conviron Scholar, American Society of Plant Biologists (Jan. 2020 – May 2020)
7. F. Wendell Miller Scholarship (Aug. 2017 – Aug. 2020)

Work Experience

Conservation and Land Management Internship Program (Chicago Botanic Garden) Bureau of Land Management Anchorage, AK, Supervisor: Eric Geisler (June 2016- Nov. 2016)

• Seeds of Success program
• Conducted AIM protocol on placer gold mines for the AIM monitoring project
• ANSEP Outreach

Professional Development

Professional Society Memberships

• American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB), Jan. 2020 – Jan. 2021
• Maize Genetics Cooperative (MGC), Jan. 2020 – present
• Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE), Jan. 2021 – 2022, Mar. 2025 – present
• Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE), Jan. 2024 – Jan 2027

Workshops

• Preparing Future Faculty, Iowa State University (Aug. 2020 – May 2021)
• P3 Data Carpentry Boot Camp, Iowa State University (Aug. 2018)
• Summer Institute of Statistical Genetics, University of Washington (July 2018)

Publications and Presentations

In Revision

1. Samantha J. Snodgrass, Margaret Woodhouse, Arun Seetharam, Michelle Stitzer, Matthew B. Hufford. 2024. “Maize and wild relatives show distinct patterns of genome downsizing following polyploidy” BioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.12.24.630189

Publications

1. Forrest Li, Daniel J. Gates, Edward S. Buckler, Matthew B. Hufford, Garrett M. Janzen, Rubén Rellán-Álvarez, Fausto Rodríguez-Zapata, J. Alberto Romero Navarro, Ruairidh J. H. Sawers, Samantha J. Snodgrass, Kai Sonder, Martha C. Willcox, Sarah J. Hearne, Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra, Daniel E. Runcie. 2025. “Environmental data provide marginal benefit for predicting climate adaptation” PLoS Genetics https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011714
2. Ning Yang, Yuebin Wang, Xiangguo Liu, Minliang Jin, Miguel Vallebueno-Estrada, Erin Calfee, Lu Chen, Brian P. Dilkes, Songtao Gui, Xingming Fan, Thomas K. Harper, Douglas J. Kennett, Wenqiang Li, Yanli Lu, Jingyun Luo, Sowmya Mambakkam, Mitra Menon, Samantha Snodgrass, Carl Veller, Shenshen Wu, Slying Wu, Yingjie Xiao, Xiaohong Yang, Michelle Stitzer, Daniel Runcie, Jianbing Yan, Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra. 2023. “Two Teosintes Made Modern Maize” Science 382(6674) (https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adg8940)[https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adg8940]
3. Thomas Hartwig, Michael Banf, Gisele Passaia Prietsch, Jia-Ying Zhu, Isabel Mora-Ramírez, Jos H. M. Schippers, Samantha J. Snodgrass, Arun S. Seetharam, Bruno Huettel, Judith M. Kolkman, Jinliang Yang, Julia Engelhorn, & Zhi-Yong Wang. 2023 “Hybrid allele-specific ChIP-seq analysis identifies variation in brassinosteroid-responsive transcription factor binding linked to traits in maize” Genome Biology 24 doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-023-02909-w
4. Corrinne E Grover, Mark A Arick, II, Adam Thrash, Joel Sharbrough, Guanjing Hu, Daojun Yuan, Samantha Snodgrass, Emma R Miller, Thiruvarangan Ramaraj, Daniel G Peterson, Joshua A Udall, Jonathan F Wendel. “Dual Domestication, Diversity, and Differential Introgression in Old World Cotton Diploids” Genome Biology and Evolution, Volume 14, Issue 12, December 2022, evac170, (https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evac170)[https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evac170]
5. Matthew B. Hufford, Arun S. Seetharam, Margaret R. Woodhouse, Kapeel M. Chougule, Shujun Ou, Jianing Liu, William A. Ricci, Tingting Guo, Andrew Olson , Yinjie Qiu, Rafael Della Coletta, Silas Tittes, Asher I. Hudson, Alexandre P. Marand, Sharon Wei, Zhenyuan Lu, Bo Wang, Marcela K. Tello-Ruiz, Rebecca D. Piri, Na Wang, Dong won Kim, Yibing Zeng, Christine H. O’Connor, Xianran Li, Amanda M. Gilbert, Erin Baggs, Ksenia V. Krasileva, John L. Portwood II, Ethalinda K.S. Cannon, Carson M. Andorf, Nancy Manchanda, Samantha J. Snodgrass, David E. Hufnage, Qiuhan Jiang, Sarah Pedersen, Michael L. Syring, David A. Kudrna, Victor Llaca, Kevin Fengler, Robert J. Schmitz, Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra, Jianming Yu, Jonathan I. Gent, Candice N. Hirsch, Doreen Ware, R. Kelly Dawe. 6 August 2021. “De novo assembly, annotation, and comparative analysis of 26 diverse maize genomes” Science https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abg5289
6. Ou, S., J. Liu, K.M. Chougule, A. Fungtammasan, A.S. Seetharam, J. Stein, V. Llaca, N. Manchanda, A.M. Gilbert, X. Wei, C. Chin, D.E. Hufnagel, S. Pedersen, S. Snodgrass, K. Fengler, M. Woodhouse, B.P. Walenz, S. Koren, A.M. Phillippy, B. Hannigan, R.K. Dawe, C.N. Hirsch, M.B. Hufford, Doreen Ware. 2020. “Effect of sequence depth and length in long-read assembly of the maize inbred NC358”. Nature Communications 11(1):2288. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-16037-7
7. Gates, D.J., D. Runcie, G.M. Janzen, A. Romero-Navarro, M. Willcox, K. Sonder, S.J. Snodgrass, F. Rodríguez-Zapata, R.J.H. Sawers, R. Rellán-Álvarez, E.S. Buckler, S. Hearne, M.B. Hufford, J. Ross-Ibarra. 2019. “Single-gene resolution of locally adaptive genetic variation in Mexican maize”. BioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/706739
8. Snodgrass, S.J., M.B. Hufford. 2018. “Domestication Genomics: untangling the complex history of African rice”. Current Biology. 28: R786-R788 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.05.072
9. Manchanda, N.,S.J. Snodgrass, J. Ross-Ibarra, M.B. Hufford. 2018. Evolution and adaptation in the maize genome. In The Zea mays Genome, Bennetzen, Flint-Garcia, Hirsch, Tuberosa (Eds.), Springer Nature Publishing
10. Snodgrass, S., Jareczek, J., Wendel, J. F. 2017. “An examination of nucleotypic effects in diploid and polyploid cotton” Annals of Botany 9: plw082; doi:10.1093/aobpla/plw082

Presentations

1. Plant Biology July 27, 2025 Invited Speaker
2. Evolution June 23, 2025
3. Cornell Corteva Plant Science Symposium April 11, 2025 Invited Speaker
4. Maize Genetics Meeting March 2, 2024
5. Interdepartmental Plant Biology Student Seminar Series December 6, 2024
6. Zeavolution Webinar Series November 8, 2024
7. Interdepartmental Plant Biology Student Seminar Series February 15, 2023
8. Evolution Conference June 25, 2022
9. Interdepartmental Plant Biology Student Seminar Series March 2, 2022
10. ASPB July 18, 2021
11. Evolution June 23, 2021
12. Interdepartmental Plant Biology Student Seminar Series April 14, 2021
13. Plant and Animal Genome Conference January 14, 2020 Invited Speaker
14. P3 Symposium November 9, 2018
15. Iowa State Interdepartmental Plant Biology Student Seminar August 29, 2018
16. Iowa State Interdepartmental Plant Biology Student Seminar Series December 6, 2017
17. Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Symposium at Grinnell College April 12, 2016
    • Admitted into the digital archive of student scholarship of the Grinnell College Library https://digital.grinnell.edu/islandora/object/grinnell%3A13258
18. Grinnell College Biology Department Student Seminar February 23, 2016

Return to main page