I am a full professor & group leader in Quantitative Genomics, Bioinformatics and Computational (Systems) Biology at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) since 1 March 2017.  I was the head of department (Institute Director) for Bio and Health Informatics (DTU Bioinformatics), Head of PhD School and Head of Section of Systems Genomics at DTU Bioinformatics (1 March 2017 to 1 June 2018). Prior to DTU, from 2010 until 2017, I was a full professor and group leader of Animal Breeding, Quantitative Genetics and Systems Biology at the University of Copenhagen. I was also the Director of the Danish-Indian BioChild Consortium (Genomics and Systems biology of Childhood obesity), and the Danish-Brazilian GIFT Consortium (Genomics of IVF and ET in cattle).

Prior to Denmark, I lived and worked in five other countries.  As a principal scientist and leader of quantitative genetics and systems biology group at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia during 2006-2011. As a head of statistical animal genetics group at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich in Switzerland (2001-2006). I was a cattle geneticist at the Scottish Agricultural College, Edinburgh, UK (1998-2001) with a short time as a visiting scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA in 1999. My PhD degree is in Quantitative-Statistical Genetics from The University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada) 1994-1998 with a part of my PhD research conducted at the Wageningen University in the Netherlands. My basic university educational qualifications are Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) and Masters' degree (MVSc) in Veterinary Genetics (India).

I primarily work in genomics, bioinformatics, multiomics, systems biology, predictive and personalized data analytics using big data integration and analyses applied to animal health and production, with strong industrial & commercial collaborations. I have a keen interest and experience in applying AI and machine learning methods in human health data from clinical trials and hospital records. 

I am a member of many international organizations and lead many international research projects. I am a member of review panels for research grant applications for European Commission, Scandinavian and international research agencies. I take part as scientific advisory board member for both public and private organizations. Most of my scientific reviews, consultancy and advice are conducted in my free time via my private consulting firm, AVA Genomics Consultancy IVS. 

I have supervised / co-supervised 30 PhD students and 12 postdocs. I have around 370 refereed scientific publications: of which over 130 are original research articles in international journals with peer review including in Nature journal and 55 refereed full papers as conference proceedings, 2 Books, 11 book chapters, 170 refereed conference abstracts/short papers, 18 biological databases and 5 software. H-index 35 with 4122 citations (as per Google Scholar Nov 2020). Over 150 talks (85 invited) in 22 countries

COMPETITIVE RESEARCH GRANTS: Lifetime external grants approx. DKK. 110 million or EURO 15.2 M and internal grants & co-financed grants of Dkr. 37 M or EURO 5 M (TOTAL ~EURO 20.2 Million or US$ 25 Million) over the last 20 years (1998-todate)

PUBLICATIONS & TALKS: Around 370 refereed scientific publications: of which 130 journal articles with international peer review including in Nature journal and 55 refereed full papers as conference proceedings, 2 Books, 11 book chapters, 170 refereed conference abstracts/short papers, 18 biological databases and 5 software.  In Web of Science: publications: 105; Citations: 1315 ; h-index: 24 (last 5 years). H-index 35 with 4122 citations (as per Google Scholar Nov 2020). Over 150 talks (85 invited) in 22 countries

Selected managerial, leadership and scientific advisory roles (current & past)

- Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Synomics Ltd in Oxford, UK and (Managing) Director of Synomics ApS in Copenhagen, Denmark since February 2020 to present

- Institute Director and Head of PhD School at Institute of Bio and Health informatics, DTU Denmark for approx. 1.5 years

- Head of group and section of Quantitative Genetics & Systems genomics/biology at University of Copenhagen and DTU, Denmark

- Board member of the Institute council of Clinical Veterinary and Animal Sciences at the University of Copenhagen fo 3 years 

- Director of The BioChild Consortium related to Obesity

- Director of The GIFT Consortium related to Genomics of Invitro Embryo Production

- Deputy director of Institute of Animal Sciences at ETH Zurich Switzerland for 2 years

- Board member of the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences, ETH Zurich, Switzerland (5.5 years)

- Executive board member for research stations of faculty of Agriculture and Food sciences, ETH Zurich, Switzerland (5.5 years)

- Board member of Strategic Committee of School of Environment and Natural Resources in ETH Zurich, Switzerland (4 years)

- Coordinator of ‘Computational and Quantitative Biology’ research projects in ETH Zurich, Switzerland (2 years)

- Board  member of the “Transformational Biology initiative” CSIRO Australia (4 years)

- Equal Employment Opportunity Officer of CSIRO and Diversity Council of Australia (DCA)

- Main or co-principal investigator of 40 + externally funded research projects until to-date

- Member/scientific reviewer of more than 25 international journals and Associate Editor/Board member

- Reviewer of EU, American, Australian and Danish research grant applications for various funding bodies

International Experience:

Broad international background (both work culture as well as societal) - Employed in various State and Federal Government organizations as well as Universities in seven different countries (Denmark, Australia, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Canada, Holland and India) with collaboration networks still intact. As a part of the public research funding in the countries I worked, I have run international projects through strategic partnerships with Brazil, USA, Central / East Africa, India and Singapore. This has also provided me with a strong multi-cultural work experience as well.

Language Skills:
English
Danish

- Quantitative-, Statistical-, Computational- and Population-genetic data analyses in animal and human populations

- Biostatistics, experimental designs, (Big) biological data modeling and analyses

- Gene, variant, pathway and biomarker discovery by integrative ‘omic analyses including Genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics & metabolomics underlying complex human and animal traits or diseases

- Personalized and predictive medicine in human diseases with a focus on obesity, nutritional, metabolic, immune and psychiatric diseases

- Genetics/genomics, bioinformatics and systems biology of animal production, reproduction, health and welfare

- Biological and health databases, high performance scientific computing, omics software and tool developments