Himla (Himladevi) Soodyall (b Durban, 1963) is a South African

geneticist A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic processe ...

involved in finding some of the oldest human genetic lines, mainly focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa. Her work on DNA has pointed to southern Africa as the most likely geographic region of origin of the human species. She is Director of th
Human Genomic Diversity and Disease Research Laboratory
National Health Laboratory Service at the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( o ...

. She was awarded a Bronze

Order of Mapungubwe The Order of Mapungubwe is South Africa's highest honour. It was instituted on 6 December 2002, and is granted by the President of South Africa, for achievements in the international arena which have served South Africa's interests. The order orig ...

in 2005 for her "Outstanding contributions in the field of science" in South Africa.

Education

Soodyall was born in Durban and educated at Gandhi-Desai High School before obtaining a BSc and BScHons at the

University of Durban-Westville The University of Durban-Westville (UDW) was a university situated in Westville, a town situated near Durban, South Africa, which opened in 1972. It is now one of the campuses of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. It was initially established for ...

and an MSc in biotechnology from the University of the Witwatersrand. Her PhD, on human population and evolutionary genetics, was obtained in 1993 under the supervision of Trefor Jenkins.

Career

Soodyall spent 4 years on a Fogarty International Fellowship (from the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

in the United States) at

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

doing postdoctoral research with

Mark Stoneking Mark Stoneking (born 1 August 1956) is a geneticist currently working as the Group Leader of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, of Max Planck Gesellschaft at Leipzig, and Honorary Professor of Biological Anthropology, Universi ...

. In 1996 she returned to South Africa to set up her own laboratory at the South African Institute for Medical Research (now the

National Health Laboratory Service The National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) is a South African national government institution established in 2001. It was created by merging the South African Institute for Medical Research (SAIMR), the National Centre for Occupational Health ...

). Here she conducted population and evolutionary genetics research. In 2001 she was appointed director of the Human Genomic Diversity and Disease Research Unit at WITS. She was also invited to participate in the

Genographic Project The Genographic Project, launched on 13 April 2005 by the National Geographic Society and IBM, was a genetic anthropological study (sales discontinued on 31 May 2019) that aimed to map historical human migrations patterns by collecting and ...

as the principal investigator for sub-Saharan Africa.

Recognition, awards, memberships

*1999 President's Award from the NRF *1999 WITS Vice-Chancellor's Award for research *2005

(Bronze) for her "Outstanding contributions in the field of science"

Selected publications

Soodyall is the author of
A Walk in the Garden of Eden
. She is also the author or co-author of more than 90 academic publications, including: * * * *

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soodyall, Himla South African geneticists Human geneticists Living people South African women scientists 21st-century women scientists 1963 births University of the Witwatersrand academics