Professor Morten Allentoft
Morten is an evolutionary biologist specializing in population genomics and ancient DNA research.
He obtained a PhD from Canterbury University, New Zealand in 2011 and then established himself as a group leader at Centre for GeoGenetics (University of Copenhagen, Denmark). While his research in the past 10 years has evolved mostly around population genetics of extinct megafauna and ancient humans, he is now attacking deeper evolutionary questions that involve the generation, distribution, and conservation of biodiversity on our planet – with a particular interest in reptiles and amphibians. In mid-2020 Morten was appointed a Professor in Molecular Ecology at Curtin University in Australia to lead the TrEnD Laboratory (https://research.curtin.edu.au/scieng/trend-lab/). He maintains a 20% fractional affiliation with University of Copenhagen, thus leading research groups and multiple research projects across two continents. The overriding scientific aim is to understand patterns of past and present biodiversity based on genetic data – including eDNA.