Alexei Drummond

Professor Alexei Drummond is a lecturer of Computational Biology in the Department of Computer Science at The University of Auckland and Director for the Centre for Computational Evolution – a centre involved in developing software tools and mathematical models for understanding evolution and molecular ecology from genes to genomes. He completed his BSc in Biology and Computer Science at The University of Auckland in 1996, followed by a PhD in Bioinformatics at the University of Auckland in 2002. This was followed by three years of post-doctoral research in the Department of Statistics and the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford. Alexei’s research interests are centred around probabilistic models at the intersection of computational biology, phylogenetics, population genetics, epidemiology and evolution. He has led a team of students, postdocs, and colleagues in world-leading research that has transformed the way biologists use genetic data to study evolution. The team has developed software that has become the leading tool for investigating how viruses evolve, and for addressing leading questions about the origin of species. His software is used daily all over the world and is having a major impact in areas such as human health and disease epidemiology.