Héctor Mario Pucciarelli

Héctor Mario Pucciarelli is Argentinean and works at the  Departamento Científico de Antropología del Museo de La Plata, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. His Bachelor and PhD degrees were obtained at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata.  He is member of the “Career of Scientific and Technological Research”, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Full Professor of “Biological Anthropology I” and Chief of the Scientific Department of Anthropology, on a competitive basis.  He is also Assistant Director of the Centro de Investigaciones en Genética Básica y Aplicada (CIGEBA), Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, and Researcher in the Scientific Area of Anthropology and Archeology of the Centro Nacional Patagónico (CENPAT-CONICET). He directs the Revista Argentina de Antropología Biológica. Official Organ of the Asociación de Antropología Biológica Argentina (AABA). He has received several distinctions, as “Profesor Domingo Mansi" award and “Ernesto Bottini" award; he is member of different societies in Argentina and abroad, was being designated President of the Asociación de Antropología Biológica de la República Argentina and President of the  Comisión de Investigaciones de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata, among other positions. He has published 127 scientific papers, performed 55 scientific counselings, and directed 37 fellowships. His subjects of research are mainly related to morphology: phylogenetic analysis and evolution of human populations as well as morphology, growth and development in humans, primates and rats; his publications are also dedicated to different processes in past and present Latin American populations, and to theory and research in biological anthropology.

Gonzalo Figueiro

Gonzalo Figueiro obtained a degree in Archaeology in 2001. He then drastically turned to genetics to solve archaeological problems, obtaining a M.Sc in Genetics from the University of the Republic (Uruguay) in 2006 for the analysis of a 9000-year-old prehistoric sample from Argentina. He has been working since 1999 with the Department of Biological Anthropology (School of Humanities, University of the Republic) in projects dealing with the genetics of ancient and modern human populations. His current research interests include everything that has to do with the tracing of populations through space and time using DNA markers.

FRANCISCO M. SALZANO

Graduated in Natural Sciences by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in 1950 he specialized in Genetics at the University of São Paulo (USP) in 1951. Returning to Porto Alegre, he was admitted as a member of UFRGS’s staff in 1952, and in 1955 obtained his Ph.D. at USP. An one-year post-doctoral stay at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, 1956-1957) followed. Along the years he developed his professional career at UFRGS, reaching the Professorship level in 1981; in 1999 he was awarded the Emeritus Professor title. His scientific investigations started with research in Drosophila, but after the USA stay he turned to human genetics, in which he is engaged up to the present. In addition, he collaborated in investigations involving Brazilian native grasses, wheat, rodents, felines, cattle, chicken, and non-human primates. In relation to Homo sapiens, the studies involved normal and pathological characteristics, in a large number of populations of all major ethnic groups, with an emphasis in South Amerindians. He has been the author or co-author of 1,308 contributions to the scientific literature, including 439 full scientific papers, 50 chapters of books, and 18 books. A total of 44 Ph.D.s, and 43 M.Sc.s obtained their degrees under his supervision. He has presided or has been in the governing board of many national and international associations and received many honors at these two levels, being a member of the Brazilian, USA, Chilean, Latin American, and Third World Academies of Sciences.

Alan Edmund Stark

Graduated in 1954 from the University of Adelaide, South Australia with majors in Latin and Pure Mathematics.  Worked as a high school teacher for three years in rural South Australia.  Studied Statistical Methods and Mathematical Statistics while working for the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the CSIRO Division of Mathematical Statistics whose Chief at that time was E.A. Cornish.  In the former was employed on sample surveys under the direction of E.K. Foreman.  In the latter lecturers included Alan James and Graham Wilkinson.  In CSIRO was attached to the CSIRO Marine Laboratory working on the dynamics of exploited fish populations and briefly on textile physics.  In Canberra studied under E.J. Hannan and G. Watterson in the college which later was incorporated in the Australian National University.  In 1969 began work as Senior Lecturer (Medical Statistics) in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of New South Wales.  In 1968 completed MA in Mathematical Statistics  at UNSW under the supervision of J.B. Douglas and A.G. Elliott.  In 1977 completed PhD in population genetics at UNSW under supervision of R.J. Walsh and C.A. McGilchrist.  Retired from UNSW in 1997 but continue self-funded research.  Currently working on the crisis in Soviet genetics of the 1930’s, in particular on the involvement of some leading mathematicians.

John Novembre

John Novembre received his Ph.D. after studying with Montgomery Slatkin at University of California—Berkeley.  He was a postdoctoral fellow with Matthew Stephens at the University of Chicago, before beginning as faculty at the University of California – Los Angeles.  His research focuses on developing statistical tools for use in population genetics and molecular evolution, with a particular emphasis on problems that arise when working with structured populations.  A major focus is human genetics, particularly human evolutionary genetics, individual ancestry inference, and association mapping.

Mónica Sans

Anthropologist, with postgraduate studies (Master, PhD) in Biological Sciences (Genetics). Her research is mainly related with Population genetics in present and past populations. She is Professor of Biological Anthropology and directs the Department of Biological Anthropology in the Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación, Universidad de la República, Uruguay, and has taught  graduated and postgraduated courses in different institutions in Spain, Brazil, EUA, as well as in her own country. She directs research in different subjects, specially related with the origin of Latin American populations and recently, its relationship with some complex diseases.. She also directs the undergraduate studies in Human Biology (four colleges). She is researcher of the Programa de Desarrollo de las Ciencias Básicas (PEDECIBA) and the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (ANII). She is the President of the Sociedad Uruguaya de Genética and, in the past, of the Asociación Latinoamericana de Antropología Biológica. She integrates Editorial Committees of several international journals. She has published more than 70 papers, books and chapters of books in subjects of her specialty.