Montgomery Slatkin obtained his PhD in Applied Mathematics from Harvard in 1970, and held faculty positions at the University of Chicago and the University of Washington before joining UC Berkeley in 1985, where he is currently Professor of Zoology and of Integrative Biology. Slatkin's research is directed towards analyzing genetic data within and between species in the context of population genetic models. The overall goal is to show how variation among individuals in a DNA sequence can be used to understand population genetic processes including recombination, selection, migration and past population growth. At present his research is focused on (1) linkage disequilibrium and the generation of haplotype blocks; (2) the spectrum of frequencies of alleles associated with genetic diseases in humans; (3) the inference of allele age; and (4) selection on alleles associated with disease resistance in human populations. Slatkin also retains an interest in quantitative genetics, epistasis and population structure.