The university community is invited to a special seminar sponsored by the department of psychiatry featuring Dr. Robert Elston, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Elston will discuss “Biometrical Genetics: Past, Present and Future” from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 12, in Room 409L in the School of Medicine building. Refreshments will be provided before the seminar.
Dr. Elston will cover important contributions in the development of population genetic models by Mendel, Fisher and others during the 20th century. He also will review the four major areas of genetic epidemiology used for gene discovery, which are: familial aggregation, segregation, co-segregation and association. He also will show how the latest methods used have their theoretical basis in developments made in the early part of the century. Finally, he will discuss speculation about what the main areas in biometrical genetics development will be in the 21st century.
Dr. Elston studied natural sciences and agriculture at Cambridge University, obtained his Ph.D. in animal breeding from Cornell University and spent a year in postdoctoral study in mathematical statistics at the University of North Carolina.
He rose to the rank of full professor in the department of biostatistics at the University of North Carolina, was the head of the department of biometry and genetics at Louisiana State Medical Center for 16 years, and for the last eight years has been a professor in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at Case Western Reserve University.
Dr. Elston is a past president of the International Genetic Epidemiology Society, has published more than 460 peer-reviewed papers and seven books on biostatistics, has received numerous awards for his seminal work in statistical genetics, and has been described as one of the founding fathers of genetic epidemiology.
For more information, call Tony Mendoza at ext. 7-5460.
