Dr. Elaine Ostrander is chief of the Cancer Genetics and Comparative Genomics Branch at the National Human Genome Research Institute of NIH. She also heads the Section of Comparative Genetics. Dr. Ostrander received her Ph.D. from the Oregon Health Sciences University, and did her postdoctoral training at Harvard. She then went to UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, where, with collaborators, she began the canine genome project, and built the canine linkage and radiation hybrid maps. 

She was at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and University of Washington for 12 years, rising to the rank of member in the Human Biology and Clinical Research Divisions, and head of the Genetics Program.  She moved to NIH in 2004. She won Genetics Society of America Medal in 2013.