Professor -
explorer - storyteller
Eske Willerslev
After spending his youth as an explorer and trapper in Siberia, Eske Willerslev became a biologist and established Denmark's first ancient DNA laboratory. He holds two doctoral degrees, one from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark (2004) and another from the University of Cambridge, UK (2019). Most recently, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he completed an Executive MBA (2022). Today he is a professor at both the University of Copenhagen and University of Cambridge. In addition, he is Excellence Professor at Bremen University, Germany.
In Copenhagen, he leads the Centre of excellence in Ancient Environmental Genomics (CAEG) and the Ancient Environmental Genomics Initiative for Sustainability (AEGIS). His research focuses on using ancient environmental genomics to improve our understanding of ecological and evolutionary processes across vast distances of space and time, and the AEGIS project is aiming to harness ancient environmental DNA to develop climate-resilient crops and sustainable agroecosystems
Eske Willerslev is particularly known for the first complete mapping of an ancient human genome and for pioneering the field of environmental DNA. His research consistently makes headlines globally. The list of publications in prestigious international journals such as Science and Nature is extensive.
With great dedication, he communicates his research to a broader public through books, films, public lectures, and interviews, and he actively participates in debates on research and education-related topics. He is also a foreign member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters – as well as the Danish Explorers Club.
Furthermore Eske Willerslev is the recipient of 20 academic awards, honours and prizes including the Albert Einstein World Award of Science 2024, the Balzan Prize for Evolution of Humankind: Ancient DNA and Human Evolution (2023), the Carlsberg Foundation Research Prize (2021), the Olav Thon Foundation's International Research Award (2021), the Order of the Dannebrog (knighthood), by her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark (2017), honorary Doctorates at Tartu University (2017) and University of Oslo (2014), the Shanghai Archaeology Forum (SAF) Award (2015), and honorary adopted member of the Crow tribe (Apsaalooke), Montana, USA and given the name ChiitdeeXia'ssee (meaning 'Well Known Scout', 2014).
Read Carl Zimmer's profile in NYT: Eske Willerslev Is Rewriting History With DNA
Field work Arctic Canada 2024
HUNT FOR THE OLDEST DNA
Two decades ago, Eske Willerslev had a radical idea: Could DNA, the fragile chemical code of life, survive intact in frozen sediment for millennia? Fellow scientists called him crazy, but the Danish biologist set out to prove everybody wrong, and his perseverance paid off. After years of failure, Willerslev and his team recovered the genetic traces of a lush forest ecosystem from before the ice age, more than two million years ago. The species identified from their DNA lived during the last hot epoch on Earth, enduring months of unbroken winter darkness in a forest that thrived in present-day northern Greenland.
The breakthrough has massive implications for how we understand the deep past. Signaling a new era in genetic research, scientists can now use DNA to travel back millions of years and piece together vanished ecosystems. Today, they are poised to harvest the genetic secrets of these ancient worlds to help us adapt to our own climate future.
Watch the trailer for director Niobe Thompson's 2024 documentary: HUNT FOR THE OLDEST DNA
ewillerslev@sund.ku.dk
