| Media
Contacts:
Dr. Bruce Weir,
919/515-3574
Mick Kulikowski,
News Services, 919/515-3470
May
9, 2003
NC
State Geneticist Weir Wins UNC System’s O. Max
Gardner Award
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
|
Dr.
Bruce S. Weir, William Neal Reynolds Professor
of statistics
and genetics
at North Carolina State University and one of
the world’s foremost researchers on statistical
analysis of DNA for forensic, human health, and
agricultural applications, will be honored today
(May 9) with the O. Max Gardner Award, the highest
faculty award presented by the Board of Governors
of the University of North Carolina.
The award is presented each year to one faculty
member from the system’s 16 campuses recognized
as having “made the greatest contribution
to the welfare of the human race.” The award
will be presented to Weir by UNC President Molly
Corbett Broad and Willie J. Gilchrist, chairman
of the 2003 UNC Board of Governors’ Gardner
Award Committee, at today’s meeting of the
board at the University of North Carolina in Chapel
Hill. |
Dr.
Bruce S. Weir
|
Weir
developed statistical tests of the frequency of genetic
profiles that are now the standard for evaluating DNA
evidence in forensic cases. He spearheaded reforms to
the national guidelines on forensic DNA analyses, was
instrumental in achieving acceptance of DNA evidence
in courtrooms, and is co-author of the definitive textbook
on statistical inference in forensics.
Weir also established statistical measures of genetic
linkage that are critical for mapping genes associated
with human disease. The methods are widely used in gene
mapping studies of complex traits such as diabetes and
longevity.
Weir’s
seminal work in genetic descent and recombination in
inbred and mixed populations laid the foundation for
describing genetic differentiation among groups of animals
and plants and has led to continuing improvements in
crop and livestock breeding.
Weir is the fifth NC State faculty member to win the
Gardner Award in the past eight years. The Gardner award
was presented in 1999 to NC State’s Dr. Jim E.
Riviere, Burroughs Wellcome Fund Distinguished Professor
in veterinary pharmacology. In 1998 it was awarded to
Dr. B. Jayant Baliga, Distinguished University Professor
of engineering; in 1997 to Dr. Wayne R. Skaggs, William
Neal Reynolds Professor and Distinguished University
Professor of biological and agricultural engineering;
and in 1996 to Dr. Ernest Hodgson, William Neal Reynolds
Professor of toxicology.
Weir is a Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science and of the American Statistical
Association and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society
of New Zealand.
Weir received his Ph.D. in statistics,
with a minor in genetics, from NC State in 1968 and
joined the faculty in 1976 as a professor of statistics.
He is head of the program in statistical genetics, director
of the NIH program grant in statistical and quantitative
genetics, founder and manager of the annual Summer Institute
in Statistical Genetics, and founding director of the
Bioinformatics Research Center. The program he heads
is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading
research and graduate training centers for the design
and application of computational and statistical methods
to problems in genomics.
Prior
to joining NC State’s faculty, Weir was senior
lecturer and reader in mathematics at Massey University
in Palmerston North, New Zealand. He received his bachelor’s
degree in 1965 at the University of Canterbury, New
Zealand, and did post-doctoral work in genetics at the
University of California-Davis. Weir is the author or
co-author of seven books and more than 150 papers.
- westphal -
|
Raleigh,
NC 27695
