Alexei Drummond

I am an evolutionary biologist, computational scientist, trail runner, rock climber, hiker, bird-watcher, environmentalist and atheist.

I am the Director of the Centre for Computational Evolution at the University of Auckland, co-inventor of the academic open-source software BEAST and co-founder of the commercial Geneious scientific software package.

I advocate open science (collegial, cooperative, equitable, transparent), including open access, open data and open source.

I have >20 years of Java programming experience and research expertise in computational biology, especially for understanding evolutionary biology, population genetics and the epidemic spread of infectious diseases through analysis of genomic diversity and related data.

I completed my BSc (1996) and PhD in Bioinformatics (2002) at the University of Auckland. I spent 3 years at the University of Oxford doing post-doctoral research in the Department of Statistics and the Department of Zoology before returning to the University of Auckland in 2005 to take up a Lecturership in Bioinformatics in the Department of Computer Science.

Specialties: Evolution, Computational biology, Java programming, Bayesian inference, Markov chain Monte Carlo, molecular evolutionary theory, biological sequence analysis, population genetics, coalescent theory, phylodynamics.

@alexeidrummond     Google Citations     ORCID     Publons

Employment history

  • Mar 2019- present, Professor of Computational Biology, School of Biological Sciences & School of Computer Science, University of Auckland
  • Feb 2013- Feb 2019, Professor of Computational Biology, Department of Computer Science, University of Auckland
  • Feb 2009 – Jan 2013, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Auckland
  • Feb 2007 – Jan 2009, Senior Lecturer, Department of Computer Science, University of Auckland
  • Nov 2006 – August 2016, Director, Biomatters Ltd
  • July 2005 – Sep 2008, Chief Scientist, Biomatters Ltd
  • Jul 2005 – Jan 2007, Lecturer, Department of Computer Science, University of Auckland
  • Dec 2003 – Jun 2005, Postdoc, Evolutionary Biology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford
  • Jun 2002- Dec 2003, Postdoc, The Genome Analysis & Bioinformatics Group, Department of Statistics, University of Oxford
  • Jun 2002- Dec 2003, Postdoc, Ancient Biomolecules Centre, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford
  • Dec 1996 – Feb 1998, Software developer, Peace Software, Auckland, NZ

Education

  • 2002, PhD in Bioinformatics, School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland
  • 1996, BSc in Biology and Computer Science, University of Auckland, Auckland

Distinctions/Honours

  • Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (highlycited.com), 2021
  • James Cook Research Fellow (2020-2021), Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi, awarded 2019
  • Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher (highlycited.com), 2019
  • Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 2015
  • Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher (highlycited.com), 2014
  • Research Medal, New Zealand Association of Scientists, 2011
  • North and South New Zealander of the Year in Science, 2011
  • Mitchell Prize, International Society for Bayesian Analysis, 2011 [With co-authors]
  • Rutherford Discovery Fellowship, Royal Society of New Zealand, 2010
  • Hamilton Memorial Prize, Royal Society of New Zealand, 2007
  • Best Doctoral Thesis, Faculty of Science, University of Auckland, 2002
  • Society for Systematic Biology, Ernst Mayr Award, 2001
  • New Zealand ACM Programming Competition Overall Champion, 1996

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