Gonçalo Abecasis

Education and early life Abecasis is the oldest of 12 children in his family, born in Moura to José Manuel and Maria Teresa. He grew up in Portugal and Macau (then Portuguese Macau). After learning computer programming in a high school club, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Genetics from the University of Leeds in 1997, working with Marie-Anne Shaw, and a D. Phil in human genetics from the University of Oxford in 2001, working with William Cookson and Lon Cardon.

Research Abecasis works on statistical and computational approaches to human genetic disease, including psoriasis and cardiovascular diseases. His group develops tools to analyze and visualize biomedical data, often using C++. and a collaboration with Oxford researchers. and he became a professor at the University of Michigan in 2009. His work was cited in 2010 by US Vice-President Joe Biden in a speech on the importance of biomedical research regarding the Recovery Act Innovation Report.

His published work is influential - as of 2018, he had an h-index of 145 and 144,018 citations. Thomson Reuters noted that he had 10 'hot papers' (in the top 0.1% by citations) in 2009. He was also noted for his 'hot papers' in 2011 and 2012.

In October 2014, he was awarded the Curt Stern Award in Human Genetics by the American Society of Human Genetics (jointly with Mark J. Daly).

He was elected to the Institute of Medicine in October 2014.

Personal life Goncalo is married to University of Michigan scientist Cristen Willer. They have five children.