Genes, Peoples and Languages

Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza was born in Genoa, Italy on January 25, 1922. He received a medical degree from the University of Pavia in 1944. He worked as a physician in Italy for two years before deciding to focus on microbiology and then genetics. He became an assistant professor at the University of Cambridge in Britain in 1948. From 1951 to 1970, he taught at the University of Parma as well as at the University of Pavia, where he led the genetics department. He was a professor at Stanford University from 1970 to 1992 and continued to do research for more than a decade after retiring.

Dr. Cavalli-Sforza was a pioneer in using genetic information to help trace human evolution, history, and patterns of migration. He was the founder of genetic geography and the co-founder of cultural evolution with Marcus Feldman. He worked on the Human Genome Diversity Project. He was the author or co-author of hundreds of scientific articles and nine books including The History and Geography of Human Genes. He died on August 31, 2018 at the age of 96.

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