Matina Donaldson-Matasci

Education

Ph.D. in Biology, The University of Washington, 2008
Biology courses: Theoretical Population Genetics, Evolution and Development of the Metazoans, Core Concepts in Animal Behavior, Advanced Cell Biology
Statistics and computer science courses: Introduction to Mathematical Statistics, Causal Modeling, Stochastic Modeling, Computational Neuroscience
Thesis: Adaptation in a changing environment: Phenotypic plasticity in response to environmental uncertainty and information
Advisor: Carl Bergstrom

B.A. in Mathematics, Reed College, 1996
Math courses: Introduction to Analysis, Linear Algebra, Probability, Elementary Number Theory, Abstract Algebra, Combinatorics, Advanced Calculus, Algebraic Topology, Geometry
Sciences: Two years of physics, introductory chemistry, organic chemistry
Thesis: Tiling with Dominoes, on relations between group theory and graph theory
Advisor: Joe Buhler

Portland State University, part time student, 1994-95 and 2000-2
Biology courses: Principles of Biology, Genetics, Evolution, Evolutionary Genetics, Ecology
Mathematics and computer science courses: Data Structures, Programming Systems, Ordinary Differential Equations

Academic Interests

Employment

Research
Research Assistant, University of Washington, Fall 2003-Spring 2004
Modeled the evolutionary origins of human language using a combination of computer simulation and game theoretic analysis methods (Bergstrom Lab.)
Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth TX, 1995
Collaborated with two other students on a paper exploring the algebraic structure of a Rubik's cube-like puzzle.
Teaching
Teaching Assistant, University of Washington, Winter 2003
Conducted two lab sections of an introductory biology course for majors.
Teaching Assistant, University of Washington, Fall 2002
Conducted two lab sections of an introductory biology course for non-majors.
Math Tutor, Reed College, Spring 1995
Weekly open tutoring session for students in introductory math courses.
Physics Lab Instructor, Reed College, Spring 1994
Prepared, conducted, and graded one section of introductory physics labs.
Physics Grader, Reed College, Fall 1992-Spring 1993
Graded homework problem sets for introductory physics.
Programming
Course Software Developer, University of Washington, Spring 2003
Developed software for an undergraduate course in game theory which allowed professors to design simple online games and evaluate students' performances in them.
Website Engineer, Transim, Portland OR, Mar 2001-July 2002
Developed (as a team) a suite of tools to help guide electronic engineers through the process of designing a power supply.
Independent Contractor, The Nation, New York NY, Jul-Oct 2000
Designed and implemented a tree-structured directory of keywords to help organize and interrelate articles.
Applications Developer, TheStreet.com, New York NY, Sep 1999-Mar 2000
Developed (with one other programmer) a hierarchical, searchable bulletin-board system.
Website Engineer, The New York Times on the Web, New York NY, Feb 1998-Jun 1999
Developed and maintained automated content processors, which parse news feeds to create individual stories and update site indexes.
Software Engineer, Sapient Health Network (now WebMD), Portland OR, Aug 1996-Jan 1997
Developed (as a team) a system to dynamically generate web pages based on content requested, user preferences, and the state of the user.

Presentations and Publications

Donaldson, M.C. (2003) A game theoretic analysis of the evolution of communication systems.
Invited speaker, Workshop on the Evolution of Meaning. Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, University of Amsterdam.
Donaldson, M.C., C.T. Bergstrom and M. Lachmann. (2004) The evolution of referential meaning in communication systems.
Contributed talk, Evolution Conference. Colorado State University, Fort Collins.
Donaldson, M.C., C.T. Bergstrom and M. Lachmann. (2006) Making the best of bad cues.
Poster, International Society for Behavioural Ecology Congress. Tours, France.
Donaldson, M.C., M. Lachmann and C.T. Bergstrom. (2007) The evolution of functionally referential meaning in a structured world.
Journal of Theoretical Biology, 246 (2): 225-233.
Donaldson-Matasci, M.C., M. Lachmann and C.T. Bergstrom. (2007) A geometric view of adaptation in uncertain environments.
Poster, European Society for Evolutionary Biology Congress. Uppsala, Sweden.
Donaldson-Matasci, M.C., M. Lachmann and C.T. Bergstrom. (2008) Phenotypic diversity as an adaptation to environmental uncertainty.
Evolutionary Ecology Research, 10 (4): 493-515.
Donaldson-Matasci, M.C., C.T. Bergstrom and M. Lachmann. (2008) Developmental plasticity: The value of information in a cue depends on the structure of errors.
Contributed talk, Evolution Conference. Minneapolis, MN.

Workshops and Symposia

CEEL program in Adaptive Economic Dynamics, University of Trento, Italy, 13-24 June, 2005
The Nature of Human Cooperation, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, March 9-10, 2006
Complex Systems Summer School, Santa Fe Institute, June 4-30, 2006

Honors and Achievements