I had always been intrigued by how phylogenetic reconstruction was used to track down the origin of HIV and how it is used to infer the flow of human populations into their current locations. This sort of genetic forensics parallels evolutionary biology and can become very sophisticated. It reveals much about our past through what is perhaps the most accurate and unbiased historical record, our DNA. I was really excited when a friend of mine in the history department recommended this seminar series to me. It is held by a group of historians who are applying modern methods in human genetics to confirm or reject hypotheses about historical inferences.

I was only able to make it to one talk this year, but it was really good. Noah Rosenberg (coincedentally a graduate of the Rice University Math department) from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor presented his computational genetic evidence for a single founder population crossing the Bering Strait and starting the spread of humans throughout the Americas. You can see more of his work here. Thankfully they podcast everything, so I look forward to seeing the other talks I missed!