Hernan Eduardo Morales Villegas

Hernan Eduardo Morales Villegas is an Associate Professor at the Section for Hologenomics within the Globe Institute of the University of Copenhagen, holding dual affiliations with the Faculty of Science and Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. His research bridges evolutionary biology and conservation science through genomic approaches to biodiversity crises.

Dr. Morales specializes in genomic erosion—the loss of genetic diversity during population collapse—and its implications for extinction risk and species recovery. Leading the Evolutionary and Conservation Genomics Group, he integrates paleogenomics, evolutionary modeling, and quantitative analyses to study endangered species, museum specimens, and simulated evolutionary dynamics. His work spans adaptation mechanisms, speciation processes, and conservation genetics, with emphasis on how anthropogenic pressures alter genomic landscapes across taxa.

Recent publications (2019-2025) reveal a cohesive research trajectory applying genomic tools to urgent conservation challenges. Studies on the kākāpō, woolly mammoth, and Iberian wolf demonstrate how genetic load, adaptive introgression, and habitat fragmentation influence species resilience. His work increasingly focuses on predictive modeling of genomic erosion dynamics, with methodologies evolving from single-species analyses toward cross-taxon comparative frameworks that inform conservation prioritization.

As director of the Evolutionary and Conservation Genomics Group, Morales fosters international collaborations evidenced by multi-institutional publications in high-impact journals. His research attracts significant scientific attention, with studies covered by hundreds of news outlets and cited extensively in policy discussions, highlighting the translational impact of genomic insights for biodiversity conservation in the Anthropocene.