Prof. Peter Donnelly University of Oxford, UK

Peter Donnelly is Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics and Professor of Statistical Science at the University of Oxford. He grew up in Australia and on graduating from the University of Queensland he studied for a doctorate in Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He held professorships at... read morethe Universities of London and Chicago before returning to Oxford in 1996.
Following an early career in mathematics, Peter is now recognised as an international leader in human genetics. He has made seminal contributions in mathematical and statistical genetics, human genetics and human population history characterised by the development of powerful and efficient analysis methods. His group developed amongst others the widely-used statistical algorithms STRUCTURE and PHASE, and in collaboration with colleagues in Oxford, IMPUTE. His current research focuses on combining analytical methods development with cutting-edge science in understanding the genetic basis of human diseases, human demographic history, bacterial evolution and infection, and the mechanisms involved in mammalian recombination.
He played a major role in the HapMap project, and more recently chaired the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC) and its successor, WTCCC2 – large international collaborations studying the genetic basis of more than 20 common human diseases and conditions in over 60,000 people. He also led WGS500, an Oxford collaboration with Illumina to sequence 500 individuals with a range of clinical conditions, to assess the short-term potential for whole genome sequencing in clinical medicine, a precursor to the NHS 100,000 Genomes Project.
He has been cited in over 30,000 publications for his innovative methods and has received numerous awards and honours. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries.