Yniv Palti

Dr. Yniv Palti is a scientist at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS). He received his B.S. in Agricultural Economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1988 and Ph.D. in Genetics and Cell Biology from Washington State University in 1997. Since joining USDA-ARS in 2001, Dr. Palti has led national and internation efforts to develop and improve resources for genomics, genetics, and breeding research in aquaculture. The major accomplishments of the teams he led include reference genome assemblies for rainbow trout and Atlantic salmon, development of high-density genotyping platforms for genetic screening in rainbow trout and Atlantic salmon, and the first published demonstration of how genomic-enabled selective breeding can enhance improvement of disease resistance in rainbow trout aquaculture. Current research interests include assessment of breeding strategies for traits of interest and implementation of genomic selection and marker assisted selection in collaboration with industry research partners, and the development of pan-genome references for rainbow trout and other salmonids to facilitate structural genome variants analyses. To date he has authored or co-authored more than 120 scientific publications, including over 100 peer-reviewed articles. He gave multiple presentations at international conferences, is frequently invited to serve on scientific advisory panels, and serves on the editorial boards of multiple scientific journals. Throughout his tenure at the USDA he has mentored six postdoctoral associates, three graduate students, six undergraduate students and two high school interns.