Omer Gokcumen
Omer Gokcumen is professor of biological sciences at the University at Buffalo, studying genomic variation in humans and other mammals. Trained at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, he combines evolutionary biology, population genetics and anthropology to explore what makes us human. His work, published in journals such as Science and Nature, has advanced understanding of archaic introgression, digestive enzymes and human diversity and has been featured by The New York Times, the BBC, CNN, NBC, the Guardian and Scientific American. A skilled communicator, he has appeared on NPR’s ‘Radiolab’ and BBC Radio 4 and is an award-winning mentor and sought-after speaker.
Gokcumen is currently at work on a book titled Older Than Human: How 12 Genetic Mistakes Shaped the Story of Us, to be published in 2028 by St. Martin’s Press (World English).