Bjarni Vilhjálmsson leads a research group focused on statistical genetics. His primary research interest lies in developing and applying computational methods that allow us to understand the interplay between genetic and environmental risk factors for disease, particularly psychiatric disorders. He is renowned for innovative methods that integrate large-scale genetic data with health registers, aiming to advance our understanding of complex traits and disease etiology.

Bjarni Vilhjálmsson – brief biography

Bjarni Vilhjálmsson earned his Ph.D. in Computational Biology from the University of Southern California (USC) in 2011, where he developed computational methods to analyze complex biological systems, particularly genetic data. His work at USC, including a paper in Nature and two in Nature Genetics, advanced the understanding of how genetic variations influence phenotypic traits, notably through highly cited research on mixed linear models.

After completing his Ph.D., Bjarni Vilhjálmsson joined the Harvard School of Public Health as a postdoctoral researcher under Prof. Alkes Price, a leader in statistical genetics. At Harvard, he developed and refined methods for genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and integrated genetic data with environmental factors to improve disease risk prediction.

In 2014, he received a Sapere Aude DFF postdoc grant to continue his work at the Bioinformatics Research Centre at Aarhus University, focusing on Bayesian polygenic score methods. In 2016, he left academia to work as a Senior Bioinformatics Scientist and Product Owner at QIAGEN, managing a team of software developers and bioinformaticians. Two years later, he returned to academia as a senior researcher at NCRR, Aarhus University, quickly establishing a productive research group and becoming a full Professor in 2020. He formally joined the Bioinformatics Research Centre as an affiliated researcher in the same year and began teaching advanced topics in statistical genetics and genomics in 2021.

Bjarni Vilhjálmsson supervises MSc and PhD students, as well as postdoctoral fellows, offering mentorship in both academic and practical applications of bioinformatics. His experience in securing competitive grants includes the Lundbeck Foundation Fellow grant (2020-2025) and an Independent Research Fund Denmark Project (2022-2026). He is also co-director of the SMARTbiomed Pioneer Centre, an international initiative funded with DKK 250 million over 13 years (2024-2037), anchored at Aarhus University with hubs at the University of Copenhagen and the University of Oxford. The centre aims to revolutionize data-driven biomedical research by developing advanced analytical methods and fostering a leading environment for health data research.

More information

Bjarni Vilhjálmsson
Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics
Aarhus University
Denmark
bjv.ncrr@au.dk