Relationship Inference with Familias and R - Statistical Methods in Forensic Genetics (Relié)

Dr. Thore Egeland is professor of applied statistics at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. He is also affiliated with the Division of Forensic Genetics at Norwegian Institute of Public Health. His interest in forensic genetics began in 1995 when the collaboration with Petter Mostad started. In recent years, the activity has increased as the joint work with Daniel Kling started. In addition to traditional activities, Egeland has been responsible for a large number of courses, most of them in Europe.
These courses have been important to understand the relevant problems facing case workers in labs working with forensic genetics. Daniel Kling holds a PhD in applied statistics, specializing in forensics. His current employment is at the Division of Forensic Services, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, dealing with research within inference of relationships. The author has developed the software FamLink and FamLinkX for linked markers and continued the development of the software Familias.
These tools have provided crucial assistance for forensic scientists and have risen to be considered as gold standards in the field. In addition, Dr. Kling has been teaching a number of courses focusing on statistical challenges when establishing relationships. Peter Mostad is associate professor in mathematical statistics at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. After graduating from Princeton with a PhD in pure mathematics, his interests have expanded in several directions and now focus on Bayesian inference and modeling, with forensic genetics as an important area of application.
He initiated the implementation of the precursor of the Familias program in 1995, and has together with Thore Egeland and later Daniel Kling developed Familia s, which is now one of the most used programs worldwide in the area of relationship inference based on DNA data.