An Introduction to Population Genetics ─ Theory and Applications

Nielsen and Slatkin (both U. of California-Berkeley) present a textbook they developed in and for a one-semester undergraduate course in population genetics. Students should have some basic knowledge of biology and genetics, they say, and not be afraid of quantitative thinking. Assuming only basic algebra, they introduce some ideas from probability and statistics that are an integral part of modern population genetics. The topics include genetic drift and mutation, population subdivision, selection, the neutral theory and tests of neutrality, and quantitative genetics. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Rasmus Nielsen is a Professor in the Departments of Integrative Biology and Statistics at the University of California at Berkeley. He first came to Berkeley to pursue a Ph.D. in Population Genetics (with advisor, now coauthor, Montgomery Slatkin), having already earned a Masters in Biology from the University of Copenhagen. Dr. Nielsen was awarded both a Fullbright Fellowship and a Sloan Research Fellowship, and received the Ole Romer Award and the ElitForsk Award. He edited the book Statistical Methods in Molecular Evolution (Statistics for Biology and Health) (2005). Dr. Nielsen and lab members work on statistical and computational methods and their applications in population genetics, medical genetics, molecular ecology, and molecular evolution.

Montgomery Slatkin is a Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California at Berkeley. He earned a B.S. in Mathematics from MIT, and a Ph.D. in Applied Biomathematics from Harvard University (with George F. Carrier and William H. Bossert). Dr. Slatkin is editor of Evolution: Essays in Honour of John Maynard Smith (with P. J. Greenwood and P. H. Harvey) and Modern Developments in Theoretical Population Genetics (with M. Veuille, Oxford University Press). He was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science (1997), awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (1999-2000), and received the Sewall Wright Award of the American Society of Naturalists (2000). His research focus is population genetics and genomics, particularly of humans and archaic human relatives.