Speakers

Agnar Helgason completed his undergraduate training in Anthropology at the University of Iceland in 1992, after which he obtained a research-based Masters degree in social anthropology in 1995 at the same institution. In 1996 Helgason graduated from the University of Cambridge with an MPhil in Biological Anthropology and with a D.Phil in the same subject from the University of Oxford in 2001. In 2000 he joined deCODE Genetics where he is currently a senior research scientist in biological anthropology and population genetics as well as being a professor at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Iceland. Helgason’s research areas include the genetic history of the Icelanders and the Inuit, the use of genealogical data in population genetics, the mutation rate, the impact of drift and migration on patterns of genetic variation, the study of natural selection at loci associated with complex diseases and traits such as pigmentation, the impact of population structure on association studies, and statistical analyses of ancient DNA. Helgason is an author of more than 60 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, thereof most in high-profile journals such as the American Journal of Human Genetics, Nature Genetics, Nature and Science.