Dr. Garrett Hellenthal University College London, UK

Garrett Hellenthal obtained a Bachelors of Science in Mathematics at Santa Clara University in 2001 before completing his PhD in Statistics (emphasis: statistical genetics) at the University of Washington in 2006. He subsequently worked as a post-doctoral research assistant at the University of Oxford and Wellcome Trust Centre for Human... read moreGenetics, developing and applying techniques to identify genetic variants associated with disease risk. He moved to University College London (UCL) in 2012, as a Sir Henry Dale Fellow funded by the Wellcome Trust and Royal Society.

He is now an Associate Professor at UCL, with his group focussed on developing and applying statistical techniques to infer the ancestral and evolutionary history of humans. This includes identifying and dating past events where groups intermixed, for example due to historic invasions or large-scale migrations. The group is also developing models to pinpoint genetic loci that have facilitated humans' adaptations to new environments, including through epigenetic markings such as methylation.