Population Genetics

Population genetics examines how alleles are spread through a population, and how evolutionary forces and the way a population is structured shape that spread. Its ideas underpin much of contemporary evolutionary biology and reach well beyond it, into conservation work, clinical research on human health, bioinformatics, the breeding of crops and livestock, and molecular biology.

The field also serves as a practical teaching tool. Because its questions are framed through models, it shows science students how to abstract a real system, build a model of it, and reason from that model, habits that carry over to any scientific discipline.