Professor Kenneth Wolfe
University College Dublin, Ireland
Biography
Kenneth Wolfe is Professor of Genomic Evolution at the Conway Institute, School of Medicine, University College Dublin, Ireland. His primary research interest is in how eukaryotic chromosomes have evolved and are organized, and he studies this using budding yeast species. He is best known for his discovery that an ancestor of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae underwent whole-genome duplication about 100 million years ago, and his subsequent discoveries of whole-genome duplications during plant and vertebrate evolution. His current research projects include why some yeasts use a non-standard genetic code in their nuclear genes, and the factors driving proliferation of selfish genetic elements in some species.