Anastasiia Duchenko

Anastasiia is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Bioinformatics and Computational
Biology program at UNC Charlotte. Her primary focus is on developing cutting-edge, AI-
based methodologies to analyze pathogen evolution and improve public health
approaches.

She previously earned a bachelor’s and master’s in molecular biology, studying
wild grasses for adaptation genes, followed by seven years in the drug development
industry. Originally from Ukraine, Anastasiia brings “fireworks” energy, inspiration,
curiosity, courage, and an unbreakable spirit, which she generously shares with people
around her. She strongly believes in a “pay it forward” philosophy: when you help
someone, they in return help someone else.

Beyond research, Anastasiia is an active member of the campus community and
serves as President of the High-Performance Computing Graduate Student
Organization, where she has enjoyed taking part in initiatives such as a Hackathon, a
workshop on research reproducibility, and an advanced training course development.
She adores extremes, like hot yoga and ice-skating, ideally at the same time.

As a GLF, Anastasiia is focused on organizing events and workshops centered
around maintaining mental health balance, avoiding burnout, and exploring how to turn
your research into a startup.