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Adjunct Professor and Research Leader, Murdoch University

Alan Bittles is Adjunct Professor and Research Leader in the Centre for Comparative Genomics, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia and Adjunct Professor of Community Genetics in the School of Medical Sciences, Edith Cowan University. He was educated in Trinity College, University of Dublin and Queen’s University, Belfast, and prior to moving to Australia in 1993 was Reader in Human Biology at King’s College London and Chair of the Board of Studies in Genetics in the University of London.
Professor Bittles has published over 200 research papers and book chapters and he has been a Visiting Senior Fellow in Cambridge, Duke, LaTrobe, Michigan, Peking, Stanford, Umeå and Washington universities. In 2006 he was WHO Adviser on Medical Genetic Services in Developing Countries, from 2007-2010 he was an invited Member of Expert Groups contributing to the Global Burden of Disease Study, and in 2011 was an Expert Member of the WHO panel on Grand Challenges in Genomics for Public Health in Developing Countries. His present research centres on the impact of consanguinity and genetic sub-structure on the patterns and prevalence of genetic disease in human populations, and on longevity and comorbidities in intellectual and developmental disability.

Experience

  • 1993–2005
    Foundation Professor of Human Biology and Director, University Centre for Human Genetics, Edith Cowan University
  • 1989–1993
    Reader in Human Biology , King's College London
  • 1989–1990
    Fulbright Senior Fellow, Population Studies Center, University of Michigan

Education

  • 1996 
    Royal College of Pathologists, Fellowship
  • 1994 
    Trinity College, University of Dublin, ScD in Human and Medical Genetics
  • 1973 
    The Queen's University Belfast, PhD in Medical Genetics

Honours

Fulbright Commission Senior Fellowship, European Union Lauréat, and Fellowships of the Institute of Biology, Royal College of Pathologists, Royal Society of Medicine, and American Association for the Advancement of Science (Community Genetics).