Peter Donnelly

Peter Donnelly, FRS is an Australian mathematician and Professor of Statistical Science at the University of Oxford. He is a specialist in applied probability and has made important mathematical contributions to coalescent theory.

His research group at Oxford has an international reputation for the development of statistial methodology to analyse genetic data. He is a fellow of St Anne's College and, with Frances Ashcroft and Kay Davies is a director of the Oxford Centre for Gene Function.

He was educated at the University of Queensland and Balliol College, Oxford. When elected to a chair at Queen Mary College, London he was the youngest Professor in Britain. He held a chair at the University of Chicago and was head of the Department of Statistics at the University of Oxford from 1996 to 2001.

Many leading statistical geneticists worked with Donnelly as young researchers including David Balding, Carsten Wiuf, Matthew Stephens and Jonathan Pritchard.

One area in which he has a leading reputation is in the interpretation of DNA evidence. He has acted as an expert witness on forensic science in criminal trials.

He is noted for his collaborative work with biologists. He has been heavily involved in a number of large scale projects, such as the International HapMap Project and the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2006.

See also R v Adams