Daniel Hartl is Higgins Professor of Biology in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. He is a world leader in evolutionary genomics, molecular evolution, and population genetics. His group is known for exploiting cutting-edge research and analytical methods, including a number of innovative molecular and computational methods currently in widespread use that combine evolutionary and population genomics with malaria parasite epidemiology.

A key research focus of the Hartl laboratory centers on understanding the processes by which organisms evolve, integrated systems change through time, and new species come into being. The research often takes advantage of organisms of interest in public health (such as the malaria parasite) or model organisms (especially fruit flies, nematodes, yeast, and bacteria). The lab makes use of state of the art molecular, statistical, and computational methods.

Professor Hartl has been honored with the Samuel Weiner Outstanding Scholar Award and Medal, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration Predoctoral Traineeship, a National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Award, the Gold Medal of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (Naples, Italy), the Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal of the Genetics Society of America, and membership to the Indian Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is past president of the Genetics Society of America and the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. He has authored more than 400 scientific articles and more than 35 books in various aspects of genetics and evolution.