2022 Hector Medal: Answering long-standing questions in genome evolution
Professor Murray Cox FRSNZ, University of Massey Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa, has been awarded the Hector Medal for major advances in population genetic theory and the innovative development of associated computational methods that have delivered deep insight into genome evolution.
Murray couples innovative advances in population genetics and complex systems theory, with the development of practical computational tools, allowing him to make striking new discoveries about the biological world from vast population and genome datasets.
His major breakthroughs include:
- discovering a previously unknown species of archaic human living in the Pacific region
- identifying the limits to which functional information from European genetic datasets can be transferred to Pacific communities
- identifying new mechanisms for how the 3D structure of DNA in a cell's nucleus coordinates gene expression.
Hector Medal:
For outstanding work in chemical, physical sciences, or mathematical and information sciences.
Citation:
For major advances in population genetic theory and the innovative development of associated computational methods that have delivered deep insight into genome evolution.