Harmit Malik obtained his Ph.D. from the Department of Biology at the University of Rochester (Rochester, NY) under the mentorship of Tom Eickbush. He then did postdoctoral research with Steve Henikoff in the Division of Basic Sciences at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, WA, before joining there as a faculty. He has been there ever since. He is also affiliate professor in the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His lab is interested in evolution-guided studies of genetic conflicts, ranging from host–virus interactions to competition between centromeres. His lab uses evolutionary analyses in combination with virology, cell biology, and genetics in a variety of model systems, but with a specific affection for Drosophila species.