Identity by Descent in Pedigrees and Populations

Elizabeth A. Thompson

Elizabeth Thompson obtained her PhD with A.W.F. Edwards from Cambridge University in 1974. After a postdoctoral year with L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza (1994 Cockerham Lecturer), she joined the faculty at Cambridge. Currently, she is Professor of Statistics, Biostatistics and Genome Sciences at the University of Washington. She is also Adjunct Professor of Statistics at North Carolina State University.

Professor Thompson is the world-renowned leader in the development of methods for genetic inference from family and population data, particularly data with large and complex pedigree structures. By analyzing these data, one can infer, for example, genealogical relationships among individuals, genetic sharing at specific genomic locations between individuals, and locations and states of genes that affect complex phenotypes. Professor Thompson made many singular contributions in ideas and methods for pedigree data analysis using likelihood and Monte Carlo likelihood. The foundation she established for pedigree data analysis has become the basis for data analysis in the enormous enterprise of human gene mapping via pedigrees.

Professor Thompson has published four books and over 200 papers and book chapters. She has an impressive record in training students, many of whom have made significant contributions in statistical genetics and become leaders in the field. For her contributions, she has received numerous awards and honors. She was invited to give the R.A. Fisher Lecture (1994), the Neyman Lecture (1996), the Fisher Memorial Lecture (2006), and the Tukey Lecture (2008). She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (2002), the inaugural Jerome Sacks Award for cross-disciplinary research from the National Institute for Statistical Science (2001), and the Weldon Prize (2001). In 1998, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2008 to the US National Academy of Sciences.