DECODE - Key Persons
Agnar completed his undergraduate and Master's degrees in Anthropology at the University of Iceland in 1992 and 1995, respectively. He then obtained a second Master's degree in Biological Anthropology from the University of Cambridge in 1996 and a D.Phil. (PhD) degree in the same subject from the University of Oxford in 2001. Agnar joined deCODE in 2000. His research focusses on understanding how the evolutionary forces of mutation, migration, drift and natural selection have shaped the gene pool of Icelanders and other populations - in the context of the quest for knowledge about the basis and magnitude of phenotypic differences between humans.
Job Titles:
- Head of Sequence Analysis
Bjarni received his Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in mathematics from the University of Iceland in 1996, and completed a PhD in Algorithms, Combinatorics and Optimization from Carnegie Mellon University 2001. He was a research scientist at Celera Genomics, Rockville MD, from 2001 until he joined deCODE in 2004. He has been an associate professor of Biomedical Engineering at Reykjavík University from 2006. Since 2013 he has been Head of Sequence Analysis at deCODE.
Job Titles:
- CHIEF SCIENTIST
- Member of the MANAGEMENT Team
Daníel received his Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in applied mathematics from the University of Iceland, and completed a PhD degree in Statistics at Duke University in 2002. He has focused on statistical methodology developent in addition to working on the genetics of several diseases and traits, such as pigmentation and atrial fibrillation. Daniel joined deCODE in 1998 and currently leads the Statistics group at deCODE.
Job Titles:
- Member of the MANAGEMENT Team
- CO - MANAGING DIRECTOR
Dr. Unnur Þorsteinsdóttir earned her PhD in molecular biology from the University of British Columbia in Canada, continued her research there, and has worked at deCODE since 2000. She is regarded as one of the world's foremost genetic scientists, a trail-blazer among women in science globally, and was named Europe's most influential female scientist by Research.com in 2023. Unnur serves on board of the Icelandic Centre for Research (Rannís) and the Science and Technology Policy Council.
Job Titles:
- Head of Functional Genomics
Guðmundur received his Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Iceland in 2006, and completed a PhD degree in stem cell biology at Lund University in 2012. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Terry Fox Laboratory at the British Columbia Cancer Agency in Vancouver and joined deCODE in 2015. Since 2016, he has been the head of the Functional Genomics with a research focus on the biochemical and cellular effects of sequence variants known to associate with diseases and other traits.
Gísli received his Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in Mathematics from the University of Iceland in 1986 and completed a PhD degree in Mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1991. During the years 1991 to 2000 he worked at the Mathematics Institute at Stockholm University, first as a post-doctoral fellow (forskarassistent) and later as an assistant professor (lektor).
Job Titles:
- General Counsel
- Member of the MANAGEMENT Team
- Secretary
Jóhann Hjartarson has been the General Counsel of deCODE genetics since 1998. He has also served as Chief Compliance and Data Protection Officer at various times during his tenure at the company. Prior to joining deCODE, Jóhann was a professional chessplayer competing at the highest level and has held the title of International Grandmaster since 1985. He has served on boards of directors of several publicly traded companies in Iceland in recent years. Jóhann holds a law degree (cand. juris) from of the University of Iceland. He is a licensed attorney, member of the Icelandic Bar Association and a European Patent Attorney.
Job Titles:
- CFO
- Member of the MANAGEMENT Team
Lára Ingólfsdóttir has been the CFO of deCODE genetics from January 2016. From 2014-2016 Lára was the Director of Corporate Services with the finance group of Alvogen and the CFO of the Icelandic private investment company Íslensk fjárfesting ehf. from 2012-2014. Lára was the controller of deCODE genetics ehf. from 2001-2012. Prior to that she worked in the financial department of an Icelandic car import company for several years.
Job Titles:
- Head of Artificial Intelligence
Magnús received his Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Master of Science (MSc) degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Iceland. He earned a Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2007. His main research focus is on the development and application of machine learning methods. Magnús joined Decode in 2013. He is a Professor in the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Iceland.
Job Titles:
- Member of the MANAGEMENT Team
- CO - MANAGING DIRECTOR
Patrick is a Medical Doctor (MD) specializing in Epidemiology and Public Health and graduated from the University of Toulouse in France in 2002. He also completed a Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) in Genetic Epidemiology at the University of Paris in 2000. He joined deCODE´s Department of Statistics in 2002 and has contributed to genetic discoveries in various conditions. He is currently leading the Clinical Sequencing effort at deCODE.
Job Titles:
- Head of RNA Sequencing Data
Páll received his Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in Mathematics from the University of Iceland in 2003 and completed a PhD degree in Algorithms, Combinatorics and Optimization from Carnegie Mellon University in 2009. He was a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Chicago from 2009 to 2011 and a faculty at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Iceland from 2011. He joined deCODE in 2013 and from 2019 he has lead the effort on analysis of RNA sequencing data. His work is focused on development of efficient algorithms for working with high-throughput sequencing data and analysis of RNA sequencing datasets. Páll is a professor of computer science at the University of Iceland.