About the SSGAC
History
The SSGAC was founded in conjunction with the CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology) consortium meeting in Boston on 12 February 2011. At the workshop, over fifty researchers from a range of disciplines met to discuss the need for and the feasibility of launching a research consortium for the study of the genetics of social-scientific outcomes. Over the years, having access to the CHARGE infrastructure has enabled SSGAC researchers to benefit from the extensive knowledge and expertise within the CHARGE community.
One major impetus for the formation of the SSGAC was growing recognition that existing approaches to gene discovery in social science have often not produced replicable findings. The pilot project of the SSGAC on educational attainment has demonstrated the feasibility of an alternative, rigorous, large-data approach to social science genetics. Ongoing and future projects of the consortium will continue this approach to genetic discovery, and work on integrating the insights from these discoveries into medical and social scientific research.
The Big Problem of Small Effects
Our research philosophy is described in the following two publications: Beauchamp et al. (2011) and Benjamin et al. (2012). In brief, our research strategy is motivated by the following observations:
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Genetic variants that are common in a population have very small individual effects on behavioral traits.
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At present, it is difficult to use theory to restrict the set of genetic variants that may be associated with behavioral traits because most genetic variants could plausibly be linked to brain activity.
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To keep the rate of false-positive findings at a tolerable level, studies must be well-powered and apply stringent significance thresholds.
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Following in the footsteps of medical research, pooling samples from multiple cohorts may be a way to conduct adequately powered genetic-association studies.
Meet the Team
Steering Committee
Daniel Benjamin
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Patrick Turley
University of Southern California (USC)
Alexander Young
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Aysu Okbay
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Working Groups
Ethics and Communication Working Group
Michelle Meyer
Geisinger Health Systems
Polygenic Index Working Group
Aysu Okbay
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Family Analysis Working Group
Alexander Young
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Methods Working Group
Patrick Turley
University of Southern California (USC)
Core Researchers
David Cesarini
New York University
Loic Yengo
University of Queensland, Australia
Jonathan Beauchamp
George Mason University
Peter Visscher
University of Oxford
Julia Sidorenko
University of Queensland, Australia
Research Assistants
Dhruva Jaishankar
UCLA
Tammy Tan
NBER
Mahdi Mir
UCLA
Matthew Howell
UCLA
Menna Hassan
NBER
Postdocs
Robel Alemu
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Affiliated Researchers
Fleur Meddens
University of Oxford
Richard Karlsson Linner
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Niels Rietveld
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Ronald de Vlaming
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Raymond Walters
Broad Institute
Advisory Board
Alicia Martin
Population Genetics
Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Melinda Mills
Sociology
University of Oxford
Michelle Meyer
Bioethics and Law
Geisinger Health Systems
David Laibson
Economics
Harvard University
Peter Visscher
Quantitative Genetics
University of Oxford
Loic Yengo
Quantitative Genetics
University of Queensland, Australia
Shawneequa Callier
Genomics Law and Policy
George Washington University
Logistics
Program Director
Chelsea Watson
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Samantha Cherney
RAND Corporation
Alumni
Casper Burik
Hariharan Jayashankar
Junming Guan
Chanwook (Sean) Lee
Hermon Kweon
Mark Fontana
Edward Kong
Hui Li
Marta Bilghese
Grant Goldman
Joel Becker
Matthijs van der Loos
Co-Founders
Daniel Benjamin
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
David Cesarini
New York University
Philipp Koellinger
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Previous Advisory Board (retired)
From its inception in 2011 until 2021, the SSGAC had an Advisory Board of prominent researchers across a range of disciplines. We are extremely grateful for all of their guidance and help over the years.
Albert Hofman
Epidemiology
Harvard University
James Lee
Psychology
University of Minnesota
Michelle Meyer
Bioethics and Law
Geisinger Health Systems
Dalton Conley
Sociology
Princeton University
Robert Krueger
Psychology
University of Minnesota
David Laibson
Economics
Harvard University
Sarah Medland
Genetic Epidemiology
QIMR Berghofer
George Davey Smith
Epidemiology
University of Bristol
Tōnu Esko
Molecular Biology and Human Genetics
University of Tartu & Estonian Genome Center
