Francois Balloux

He earned a Master's degree in 1996 and a Doctorate in 2000 from the University of Lausanne. He then completed postdoctoral research at the University of Edinburgh. Balloux was an Assistant Professor at the University of Cambridge, between 2002 and 2007, before taking a position as an Associate Professor in Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College London. In 2012, Balloux became a full Professor at University College London.[2]

His research lies at the interface of Genomics, Epidemiology, Evolution and Ecology. The main focus of his work is on the reconstruction of disease outbreaks and epidemics of human and wildlife pathogens,[3][4][5] and the emergence of antimicrobial resistance.[6][7][8] He has contributed to our understanding of the emergence and spread of drug resistance in tuberculosis,[9][10] and Gram-negative bacteria,[11][12] and the distribution of zoonotic pathogens in vertebrates.[13]

Together with his colleague Dr Lucy Van Dorp,[14] they led a team of researchers in the analysis of the first large-scale analysis of 7666 complete SARS-Cov-2 genomes, the agent of the COVID-19 pandemic. The work supported a host jump of SARS-Cov-2 into the human population in October or November 2019, extensive global transmission from early on in the pandemic.[15]

His work has been cited over 23,000 times on Google Scholar.[16]

Balloux has an excellent track record with former group members becoming successful independent scientists. Over half the PhD students and Postdoctoral Researchers he supervised to date have already secured positions as independent research group leaders. Formers mentees include Dr Vegard Eldholm,[17] Dr Thibaut Jombart,[18] Prof Laurent Lehmann,[19] and Dr Lucy Weinert.[20]

• "Francois BALLOUX | University College London, London | UCL | UCL Genetics Institute (UGI)". researchgate.net. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
• "Francois Balloux | University College London". Academia.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-15.