John Whittaker

John Whittaker, Ph.D., is currently Director of the MRC (Medical Research Council) Biostatistics Unit (BSU). He previously served as VP in Human Genetics at GlaxoSmith Kline (GSK) where he led GSK's work to identify the causal genes and mechanisms underlying genetic association signals. He also led for GSK several public-private partnerships related to the HG (Human Genetics) remit of identifying high-quality drug targets founded on genomic information, notably working with UK Biobank and Genomics England. Prior to this, he led both statistics and genetics groups at GSK.

Prior to his move to GSK in 2009, he held academic positions in several UK universities, most recently as Professor of Genetic Epidemiology and Statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where he led a group working on statistical problems in biomedicine, particularly statistical genetics/genetic epidemiology. He currently holds honorary chairs at LSHTM and at the Institute for Medical Informatics at UCL.