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Spencer Wells
August 21, 2008
One of the world's leading population
geneticists, Spencer Wells is explorer-in-residence at the National
Geographic Society, a documentary filmmaker, and the director
of the Genographic Project, the largest genetic study of human
migration ever undertaken. This five-year effort to understand
the human journey - where we came from and how we got to where
we live today - is an unprecedented effort to map humanity's
genetic journey through the ages.
Considered a child prodigy,
Wells enrolled at the University of Texas at age 16, majored
in biology, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa three years later. He
pursued his Ph.D. at Harvard University under the tutelage of
distinguished evolutionary geneticist Richard Lewontin. He then
conducted post-doctoral training at Stanford University's School
of Medicine with famed geneticist Dr. Luca Cavalli-Sforza.
Wells' field studies began in
earnest in 1996 with his survey of Central Asia. In 1998 Wells
and his colleagues expanded their study to include some 25,000
miles of Asia and the former Soviet republics. His landmark research
findings led to advances in the understanding of the male Y chromosome
and its ability to trace ancestral human migration. Wells then
returned to academia where, at Oxford University, he was appointed
director of the Population Genetics Research Group of the Wellcome
Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford.
Wells is the author of "The
Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey," an award-winning book
and documentary that aired on PBS in the U.S. and National Geographic
Channel internationally. Written and presented by Wells, the
film chronicled his globe-circling, DNA-gathering expeditions
in 2001 - 2002 and laid the groundwork for the Genographic Project.
Wells is also the presenter and scientific adviser for "The
Search for Adam," a television program produced for the
National Geographic Channel about the Genographic Project. |
