Robbee Wedow, PhD

Robbee Wedow, PhD headshot

Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor of Sociology and Data Science,
Purdue University Department of Sociology

Assistant Professor by courtesy
Purdue University Department of Statistics

Adjunct Assistant Professor
Indiana University School of Medicine
Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics

Research Fellow
AnlytiXIN

Research Affiliate
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

Email | ORCID | Google Scholar

I'm an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Data Science at Purdue University, with lots of other connections that reflect the interdisciplinary nature of my research. Before coming to Purdue, I did my PhD at the University of Colorado Boulder and my postdoc at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. My main research interests are in statistical/computational genomics and in sociogenomics, which lies at the intersection of demography and genetics. I am interested in how genetics interact with everyday life experiences to shape behavioral outcomes and in building better computational models for genomic identification and prediction.

Publications

  1. Robbee Wedow, Yeongmi Jeong, Katherine N. Thompson, Kathryn Fiuza Malerbi, Andrew Brubaker, Monica Weindling, Stanely M. Lo, Jamie Amemiya, and Brian M. Donovan. How and for whom can genetics education reduce beliefs in genetic essentialism? Human Genetics and Genomics Advances. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xhgg.2025.100548

  2. Rafael Geurgas, Saul J. Newman, Evelina T. Akimova, Katherine N. Thompson, and Robbee Wedow. (2025). What machine learning teaches us about depression prediction across the life course: An exploratory comparison of predictive models. Social Science and Medicine – Population Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2025.101886

  3. Leticia F. de Oliveira, Jenelle, Dunkelberger, Claudia A. Sevillano, Saranya Arirangan, Robbee Wedow, Matthew Tegtmeyer, Mitchell Tuinstra, and Luiz F. Brito. (2025). Genetics of reproductive performance across Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) outbreak phases in purebred and crossbred sows. Genetics Selection Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12711-025-01011-y

  4. Zacher, Meghan and Robbee Wedow. (2025). Lessons in adjusting for genetic confounding in population research on education and health. Social Science and Medicine – Population Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2025.101834

  5. Christa Ventresca, Daphne Martschenko, Robbee Wedow, Mete Civelek, James Tabery, Jedidiah Carlson, Stephen CJ Parker, Paula S Ramos. (2024). The methodological and ethical concerns of genetic studies of same-sex sexual behavior. The American Journal of Human Genetics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2024.08.007

  6. Carey, Caitlin, Rebecca Shafee, Robbee Wedow, …, Benjamin Neale, Raymond Walters, and Elise Robinson. (2024). Principled distillation of UK biobank phenotype data reveals underlying structure in human variation. Nature Human Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01909-5

  7. Lippert, Adam M., Daniel J. Corsi, Rockli Kim, Robbee Wedow, Jinho Kim, Beza Taddess, and S. V. Subramanian. (2024). Polygenic and socioeconomic contributions to nicotine use and cardiometabolic health in early mid-life. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntae146

  8. Mignogna, Gianmarco, Caitlin Carey, Robbee Wedow, Nikolas Baya, Mattia Cordioli, Nicola Pirastu, Rino Bellocco, Kathryn Fiuza Malerbi, Michel Nivard, Benjamin Neale, Raymond Walters, and Andrea Ganna. (2023). Patterns of item nonresponse behavior to survey questionnaires are systematic and associated with genetic loci. Nature Human Behavior. 7(8), 1371-1387. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01632-7

  9. Atteberry, Allison, Robbee Wedow, Nathan J. Cook, and Andrew McEachin. (2022). A replication of a quasi-experimental approach to estimating middle school structural transition Effects on student learning trajectories. Educational Policy. 36(7), 1612-1651. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904820987797

  10. Kim, Rockli, Adam M. Lippert, Robbee Wedow, Marcia P. Jimenez, and S. V. Subramanian. (2020). The relative contributions of socioeconomic and genetic factors to variations in body aass index among young adults. American Journal of Epidemiology. 189(11), 1333-1341. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwaa058

  11. Ganna, Andrea, Karin J. H. Verweij, Michel G. Nivard, Robert Maier, Robbee Wedow, …, John R. B. Perry, Benjamin M. Neale, and Brendan P. Zietsch. (2019). Large-scale GWAS reveals insights into the genetic architecture of same-sex sexual behavior. Science. 365(6456), eaat7693. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat7693

  12. Liu, Mengzhen, Yu Jiang, Robbee Wedow, Yue Li, …, Goncalo Abecasis, Dajiang Liu, and Scott Vrieze. (2019). Association studies of up to 1.2 million individuals yield new insights into the genetic etiology of tobacco and alcohol use. Nature Genetics. 51(2), 237-244. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-018-0307-5

  13. Karlsson Linnér, Richard, Pietro Biroli, Edward Kong, S. Fleur W. Meddens, Robbee Wedow, …, Daniel J. Benjamin, Philipp D. Koellinger, and Jonathan P. Beauchamp. (2019). Genome-wide association analyses of risk tolerance and risky behaviors in over 1 million individuals identify hundreds of loci and shared genetic influences. Nature Genetics. 51(2), 245-257. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-018-0309-3

  14. Wedow, Robbee, Meghan Zacher, Brooke M. Huibregtse, Kathleen Mullan Harris, Benjamin W. Domingue, and Jason D. Boardman. (2018). Education, smoking, and cohort change: Forwarding a multidimensional theory of the environmental moderation of genetic effects. American Sociological Review. 83(4), 802-832. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122418785368 

  15. Belsky, Daniel W., Benjamin W. Domingue, Robbee Wedow, Louise Arseneault, Jason D. Boardman, Avshalom Caspi, Dalton Conley, Jason M. Fletcher, Jeremy Freese, Pamela Herd, Terrie E. Moffitt, Richie Poulton, Kamil Sicinski, Jasmin Wertz, and Kathleen Mullan Harris. (2018). Genetic analysis of social class mobility in five longitudinal studies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115(31), E7275-E7284. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1801238115

  16. Lee, James J., Robbee Wedow, Aysu Okbay, …, Patrick Turley, Peter M. Visscher, Daniel J. Benjamin, and David Cesarini. (2018). Gene discovery and polygenic prediction from a genome-wide association study of educational attainment in 1.1 million individuals. Nature Genetics. 50(8), 1112-1121. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-018-0147-3

  17. Turley, Patrick, Raymond K. Walters, Omeed Maghzian, Aysu Okbay, James J. Lee, Mark Alan Fontana, Tuan Anh Nguyen-Viet, Robbee Wedow, Meghan Zacher, …, Peter Visscher, David Laibson, David Cesarini, Benjamin M. Neale, and Daniel J. Benjamin. (2018). Multi-Trait analysis of genome-wide association summary statistics using MTAG. Nature Genetics. 50(2), 229-237. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-017-0009-4

  18. Wedow, Robbee, Ryan K. Masters, Stefanie Mollborn, Landon Schnabel, and Jason D. Boardman. (2018). Body size reference norms and subjective weight status: A gender and life course approach. Social Forces. 96(3), 1377-1409. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/sox073

  19. Wedow, Robbee, Landon Schnabel, Lindsey K. D. Wedow, and Mary Ellen Konieczny. (2017). I’m gay and I’m catholic: Negotiating two complex identities at a catholic university. Sociology of Religion: A Quarterly Review. 78(3), 289-317. https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srx028

  20. Wedow, Robbee, Daniel A. Briley, Susan E. Short, and Jason D. Boardman. (2016). Gender and genetic contributions to weight identity among adolescents and young adults in the U.S. Social Science and Medicine. 165, 99-107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.07.044

  21. Domingue, Benjamin W., Robbee Wedow, Dalton Conley, Matt McQueen, Thomas J. Hoffmann, and Jason D. Boardman. (2016). Genome-wide estimates of heritability for social demographic outcomes. Biodemography and Social Biology, 62(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/19485565.2015.1068106

  22. Herzog, Patricia Snell and Robert Wedow. (2012). Youth group cliques: How religious goals can disguise discriminatory group dynamics. Review of Religious Research. 54, 217-238. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-012-0050-9