The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) 2014 has named Gonçalo R. Abecasis, D.Phil., Felix Moore Collegiate Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Michigan School of Public Health (U-M SPH); and Mark J. Daly, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/Harvard Medical School and Senior Associate Member of the Broad Institute, as the 2014 recipients of the Curt Stern Award. This annual award, named for the late pioneering geneticist Curt Stern, Ph.D., recognizes genetics and genomics researchers who have made significant scientific contributions during the past decade. ASHG will present the award, which will include a crystal plaque and $5,000 cash prize to each awardee, on Monday, October 20, during the organization’s 64th Annual Meeting in San Diego. Dr. Abecasis has developed statistical and mathematical methods for the analysis of genetic data that have evolved into standard tools in human genetics. In an era of exponential growth in genetic data, his software helps geneticists analyze studies of families and unrelated individuals, characterize variation among genomes, study connections between genetic variation and human disease, and integrate information across gene-mapping studies. He has also led scientific consortia studying a variety of human traits, such as age-related macular degeneration, heart disease, and metabolic disease. Dr. Abecasis is currently deploying next-generation sequencing technology to study the genomes of thousands of people, with the aim of better understanding genetic variation and human disease biology. In 2008, Dr. Abecasis received the U-M SPH Excellence in Research Award and in 2013, he received the Overton Prize from the International Society for Computational Biology.Login Or Register To Read Full Story