Academic Credentials
  • M.B.A., Executive Business Administration and Management, Reykjavik University, Iceland, 2006
  • Ph.D., Zoology, University College Cork (UCC), Ireland, 2001
  • B.Sc., Biology, University of Iceland, 1995
Academic Appointments
  • Research Manager and Research Associate, Harvard University, 2020 – 2023
  • Research Fellow, University of Akureyri, Iceland, 2011 – 2019
  • Senior Scientist, Marine and Freshwater Research Institute, Iceland, 2000 – 2007
  • Research Associate, University College Cork, Ireland, 1995 – 2000
Professional Honors
  • Awarded to the Reich Lab, Harvard University: Various ancient human DNA projects
  • – National Institute of Health, USA
  • – John Templeton Foundation, USA
  • – Paul Allen Family Foundation, USA
  • – Private funding, USA and EU
  • AVS R&D Fund of the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture, Iceland: Chemically controlled lipogenesis of microalgae for increased product yield
  • SSNV: Cultural Development Grant of Northwest Iceland for the publication of Iceview Magazine, Volume 1
  • SSNV: Cultural Development Grant of Northwest Iceland for the publication of Iceview Magazine, Volume 2
  • SSNV: Cultural Development Grant of Northwest Iceland for the publication of Iceview Magazine, Volume 3
  • Ministry of Industries and Innovation, Iceland: Examination of the feasibility of obtaining products from heterotrophic microalgae (Thraustochytriaceae) in culture
  • The Icelandic Center for Research: Utilization of by-products from fisheries and agriculture to formulate media for heterotrophic microalgae
  • The Icelandic Center for Research: Scaling up of cultures for the production of polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids using heterotrophic microalgae
  • AVS R&D Fund of the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture, Iceland: Examination of the viability of obtaining products from heterotrophic microalgae (Thraustochytriaceae) in culture
  • SSNV: Economic Development Fund, Iceland: Utilization of by-products from fish processing for media formulation for heterotrophic microalgae
  • AVS R&D Fund of the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture, Iceland: Production of high-value products from macro algae
  • BioVal, Regional Government of Valencia, Spain: Development of biosensors
  • Programa Torres Quevedo, Ministerio de Education y Ciencia, Spain: Development of biosensors
  • University College Cork, Ireland: Ph.D. fully funded
  • EU-COMETT Programme, University Enterprise Training Partnership, EU: Student grant
  • Training and Mobility of Researcher Programme (TMR) of the EU: Student grant
  • The Icelandic Center for Research: Several grants for laboratory equipment and infrastructure
  • MFRI, Iceland: Several grants for research on the population genetics and the evolution of redfish
  • MFRI, Iceland: The use of molecular genetics in the breeding of halibut for culture
Professional Affiliations
  • Association of University Teachers in Akureyri, Iceland, Member
  • Icelandic Confederation of University Graduates, Reykjavik, Iceland, Member
  • The Ecological Society of Iceland, Member
  • Nordic Lipidforum, Scandinavia, Member
  • nList Publishing, Chair of the Board
  • Park Ltd., Board of Directors
  • European funded projects on redfish and cod, Member of Delegations
  • Icelandic Delegation on redfish stock structure at the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), Member
  • Icelandic Delegation of Stock Identity and Management Units of Redfish (SGSIMUR), ICES, Member
  • University of Iceland, Department of Biology, Board Member
  • University of Iceland, Department of Biology, Educational Committee, Member
  • Culture Committee of Skagastrond, Member
  • Health Board of the District of Kopavogur, Member
  • Kopavogur Institute of Education, Board Member
Languages
  • Icelandic
  • Spanish (Spain)

Dr. Stefansson is a scientist and an entrepreneur with a Ph.D. in genetics and an Executive MBA in business management. He has focused his career on different aspects of environmental sustainability, ranging from natural resource management to sustainable bioprocessing. His efforts have supported economic growth and created novel business opportunities. Prior to joining Exponent, he worked as a Research Associate and a Manager at Harvard University. He oversaw and managed grant applications, reporting, budgets, and financial forecasts to facilitate groundbreaking research on ancient DNA and microbiology.

While heading a population genetics laboratory at the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute in Reykjavik, Dr. Stefansson oversaw three large EU-funded projects. He advised the Government of Iceland, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), and the International Whaling Commission (IWC) on the sustainable management of natural resources across the globe. By employing the methods of ecology, genetics, and evolutionary biology, he researched the impact of paleoclimate change on the evolutionary history of animal species. He has also taken a multidisciplinary approach when forecasting the impact of anthropogenic climate change on marine protists. 

 

Dr. Stefansson has worked at the intersection of academia and industry to spearhead an R&D program in northern Iceland. The goal of the work there was to increase the sustainability of fisheries and agriculture by developing microbial upstream bioprocesses that utilized organic waste for media formulation. These microbes synthesized healthy omega-3 fatty acids, which as his feasibility studies showed, could be developed as supplements for human consumption and in aquaculture. 

Dr. Stefansson has worked on data analysis across several fields including genetics, ecology, experimental biology, human resource management, and finance. He has broad experience in bioinformatics, which has covered many different animal species as well as microbes. He has mined data from corporate and international sources (e.g. GenBank, NOAA) to obtain high-throughput genotypes and sequence data as well as phenotypic traits and physical data. He has invented his own methods to convert qualitative genotypes into quantitative numeric data to achieve comparison between unrelated data sets. Experimental design, multivariate analysis, and statistical and mathematical modeling to test hypotheses by applying a breadth of specialized software (including R packages) have been an integral part of his work as a practitioner.