Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza

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Cavalli-Sforza, October 2010
Genetic distance map by Cavalli-Sforza et al. (1994) [1]

Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza 25 January 1922 – 31 August 2018) was an Italian population geneticist.[2] He lectured at Stanford University. Cavalli-Sforza won the Weldon Memorial Prize in 1978. He was born in Genoa, Italy.

Cavalli-Sforza's The History and Geography of Human Genes[3] (1994 with Paolo Menozzi and Alberto Piazza) is a standard reference on human genetic variation. Cavalli-Sforza also wrote The Great Human Diasporas: The History of Diversity and Evolution (together with his son Francesco).

Earlier, in the 1970s, he and Walter Bodmer wrote what was the standard textbook on modern human genetics, The Genetics of Human Populations. WHFreeman, 1971. The two, with Bodmer as first author, later wrote another more basic text, Genetics, Evolution, and Man WHFreeman, 1976. Together with his 1994 book they show human genetics before the genomics era began giving much more detailed data.

Cavalli-Sforza died on 31 August 2018 in Belluno, Italy at the age of 96.[4]

References[change | change source]

  1. Cavalli-Sforza, L.L., Menozzi, P. & Piazza, A. (1994). The History and Geography of Human Genes. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
  2. Edwards, Prof Anthony (2015). "History of the Department — Department of Genetics". www.gen.cam.ac.uk. Para 5. Archived from the original on 2013-10-30. Retrieved 2016-01-01.
  3. Cavalli-Sforza L.L; P. Menozzi, A. Piazza. 1994. The History and Geography of Human Genes. Princeton University Press, Princeton. ISBN 0-691-02905-9
  4. "Addio a Cavalli Sforza, il genetista che studiò le migrazioni dell'umanità". La Repubblica. 1 September 2018. Retrieved 1 September 2018.