Nat’l Geographic Society scientist to speak on origins of Chamorros

Vilar

The University of Guam welcomes Dr. Miguel Vilar, project manager and scientific lead for the National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project, as the 29th speaker in the UOG Presidential Lecture Series.

Vilar’s lecture, entitled “Researching the Origins and Genetic Distinctiveness of Chamorros: A Bi-Parental Analysis” will be held at 5:30pm on Tuesday, Jan. 26, in the College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences (CLASS) Lecture Hall on the UOG Campus.

“Dr. Miguel Vilar will provide us with new information about the genetic inheritance of modern day Chamorros in order to better comprehend the origins of our people,” said Dr. Robert Underwood, UOG president. “I consider this one of the most important lectures in the calendar of the Presidential Lecture Series at UOG.”

The National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project is a multi-year genetic anthropology study that aims to map global human migration patterns by collecting and analyzing DNA samples from hundreds of thousands of people from around the world.

The lecture is open to the public. Seating is limited. For more information about the lecture, contact Louise Toves at lmtoves@triton.uog.edu.

About the Lecturer
Vilar is the science manager for National Geographic’s Genographic Project. Vilar earned his Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Haverford College in 1997 and Master of Arts in Journalism from Columbia University in 1999.

After several years of science writing for Popular Science, Science World, and the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park, he returned to school and earned his Master of Science in Biomedical Anthropology, Master of Arts in Anthropology, and Doctorate in Anthropology from Binghamton University, in 2006, 2007 and 2010, respectively.  After earning his doctorate, Vilar led several projects across Latin America for the Genographic Project’s North America Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Vilar is a molecular anthropologist and science writer. His fieldwork has taken him to remote places throughout the South Pacific, East Africa, Mesoamerica, and the Caribbean. In the laboratory he researches the modern genetic diversity of human populations from Micronesia, Melanesia, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Miguel publishes in several anthropology and genetics journals, as well as popular science magazines. He also writes the Genographic Project Blog for the National Geographic Society website. (PR)