8 November 2023 – Balfour Lecture 2024 Dr Pontus Skoglund

The Genetics Society is delighted to announce Dr Pontus Skoglund, Francis Crick Institute, as the winner of the 2024 Balfour Lecture.

Pontus Skoglund is the group leader of the Francis Crick Institute’s Ancient Genomics laboratory. He obtained his PhD in evolutionary genetics from Uppsala University in 2013 with Mattias Jakobsson and thereafter did his postdoctoral research with David Reich at Harvard Medical School. His research has focused on developing new approaches to propel the field of ancient DNA into the genomic era. His PhD research revealed population migrations as catalysers for the transition from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to agriculture in Europe, and he expanded this to worldwide regions in his postdoc research. His independent lab has used ancient DNA to pioneer research revealing the origin and evolution of dogs and their wild ancestors, the evolution of our species Homo sapiens, and the evolution of bacteria and human immunity in prehistory. He is a Wellcome Trust Investigator, ERC starting grantee, EMBO Young Investigator, Vallee Foundation Scholar and Blavatnik Award finalist.