Date of birth: 8 February 1979

Present position: Specialist in statistics / data science, TM insurance, Reykjavik, Iceland.

Address: Neshagi 10, 107 Reykjavík, Iceland

Phone (mobile): +354 692 1855

E-mail address: egil.ferkingstad@gmail.com

Education 

2008

PhD, Statistics. Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway. 

2003

M.Sc. (sivilingeniør), Applied Mathematics / Statistics. Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway.

Experience

2023 (October) - current

Specialist in statistics / data science, TM insurance, Reykjavik, Iceland.

2017 (September) - 2023 (October)

Senior data research scientist at deCODE genetics, Reykjavik, Iceland.

2016 - 2017 (August)

Science Institute, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland: Research Scholar (Fræðimaður) in Statistics.

2015 (November)

Visiting scholar at the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Zürich. 

2015 (Jan-Oct)

Department of Mathematical Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway: Researcher in Statistics

2014

Science Institute, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland: Research Scholar (Fræðimaður) in Statistics.

2007 – 2013

Norwegian Computing Center (Norsk Regnesentral), Oslo: Research Scientist (Senior Research Scientist from July 2013).

2010 (Jan-Jun)

Visiting scholar at the University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland 

2005 (Jan-Jun)

Visiting scholar at deCODE genetics, Reykjavik, Iceland

2004 – 2007

Department of Biostatistics, University of Oslo: Research fellow (PhD student).

Selected publications

• Grimur Hjorleifsson Eldjarn*, Egil Ferkingstad* (*joint first authors), Sigrun H. Lund, Hannes Helgason, Olafur Th. Magnusson, Kristbjorg Gunnarsdottir, Thorunn A. Olafsdottir, Bjarni V. Halldorsson, Pall I. Olason, Florian Zink, Sigurjon A. Gudjonsson, Gardar Sveinbjornsson, Magnus I. Magnusson, Agnar Helgason, Asmundur Oddsson, Gisli H. Halldorsson, Magnus K. Magnusson, Saedis Saevarsdottir, Thjodbjorg Eiriksdottir, Gisli Masson, Hreinn Stefansson, Ingileif Jonsdottir, Hilma Holm, Thorunn Rafnar, …Kari Stefansson. Large-scale plasma proteomics comparisons through genetics and disease associations.  Nature, volume 622, pages 348–358, 2023

• Egil Ferkingstad, Patrick Sulem, Bjarni A. Atlason, Gardar Sveinbjornsson, Magnus I. Magnusson, Edda L. Styrmisdottir, Kristbjorg Gunnarsdottir, Agnar Helgason, Asmundur Oddsson, Bjarni V. Halldorsson, Brynjar O. Jensson, Florian Zink, Gisli H. Halldorsson, Gisli Masson, Gudny A. Arnadottir, Hildigunnur Katrinardottir, Kristinn Juliusson, Magnus K. Magnusson, Olafur Th. Magnusson, Run Fridriksdottir, Saedis Saevarsdottir, Sigurjon A. Gudjonsson, Simon N. Stacey, Solvi Rognvaldsson, Thjodbjorg Eiriksdottir, Thorunn A. Olafsdottir, Valgerdur Steinthorsdottir, Vinicius Tragante, Magnus O. Ulfarsson, Hreinn Stefansson, Ingileif Jonsdottir, Hilma Holm, Thorunn Rafnar, Pall Melsted, Jona Saemundsdottir, Gudmundur L. Norddahl, Sigrun H. Lund, Daniel F. Gudbjartsson, Unnur Thorsteinsdottir & Kari Stefansson. Large-scale integration of the plasma proteome with genetics and disease. Nature Genetics, volume 53, pages 1712–1721, 2021.

• Joseph Dowsett, Egil Ferkingstad, Line Jee Hartmann Rasmussen, Lise Wegner Thørner, Magnús K Magnússon, Karen Sugden, Gudmar Thorleifsson, Mike Frigge, Kristoffer Sølvsten Burgdorf, Sisse Rye Ostrowski, Erik Sørensen, Christian Erikstrup, Ole Birger Pedersen, Thomas Folkmann Hansen, Karina Banasik, Søren Brunak, Vinicius Tragante, Sigrun Helga Lund, Lilja Stefansdottir, Bjarni Gunnarson, Richie Poulton, Louise Arseneault, Avshalom Caspi, Terrie E Moffitt, Daníel Gudbjartsson, Jesper Eugen-Olsen, Hreinn Stefánsson, Kári Stefánsson, Henrik Ullum. Eleven genomic loci affect plasma levels of chronic inflammation marker soluble urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor. Communications Biology, 2021

• Steven Bell, Andreas S Rigas, Magnus K Magnusson, Egil Ferkingstad, Elias Allara, ..., Karina Banasik, Gudmar Thorleifsson, Willem H Ouwehand, Unnur Thorsteinsdottir, David J Roberts, Patrick Sulem, Adam S Butterworth, Daniel F Gudbjartsson, John Danesh, Søren Brunak, Emanuele Di Angelantonio, Henrik Ullum, Kari Stefansson. A genome-wide meta-analysis yields 46 new loci associating with biomarkers of iron homeostasis. Communications Biology, 2021

• Thjodbjorg Eiriksdottir, Steinthor Ardal, Benedikt A Jonsson, Sigrun H Lund, Erna V Ivarsdottir, Kristjan Norland, Egil Ferkingstad, Hreinn Stefansson, Ingileif Jonsdottir, Hilma Holm, Thorunn Rafnar, Jona Saemundsdottir, Gudmundur L Norddahl, Gudmundur Thorgeirsson, Daniel F Gudbjartsson, Patrick Sulem, Unnur Thorsteinsdottir, Kari Stefansson, Magnus O Ulfarsson. Predicting the probability of death using proteomics. Communications Biology, 2021

• Anna Helgadottir, Gudmar Thorleifsson, Kristjan F Alexandersson, Vinicius Tragante, Margret Thorsteinsdottir, Finnur F Eiriksson, Solveig Gretarsdottir, Eythór Björnsson, Olafur Magnusson, Gardar Sveinbjornsson, Ingileif Jonsdottir, Valgerdur Steinthorsdottir, Egil Ferkingstad, ..., Patrick Sulem, Unnur Thorsteinsdottir, Gudmundur Thorgeirsson, Hilma Holm, Daniel F Gudbjartsson, Kari Stefansson. Genetic variability in the absorption of dietary sterols affects the risk of coronary artery disease. European Heart Journal, Volume 41, Issue 28, Pages 2618–2628, 2020.  

• Gudjon R Oskarsson, Asmundur Oddsson, Magnus K Magnusson, Ragnar P Kristjansson, Gisli H Halldorsson, Egil Ferkingstad, ..., Daniel F Gudbjartsson, Gudmundur L Norddahl, Unnur Thorsteinsdottir, Patrick Sulem, Kari Stefansson. Predicted loss and gain of function mutations in ACO1 are associated with erythropoiesis. Communications Biology 3, Article number: 189, 2020. 

• Sandya Liyanarachchi, Julius Gudmundsson, Egil Ferkingstad, Huiling He, Jon G. Jonasson, Vinicius Tragante, Folkert W. Asselbergs, Li Xu, Lambertus A. Kiemeney, Romana T. Netea-Maier, Jose I. Mayordomo, Theo S. Plantinga, Hannes Hjartarson, Jon Hrafnkelsson, Erich M. Sturgis, Pamela Brock, Fadi Nabhan, Gudmar Thorleifsson, Matthew D. Ringel, Kari Stefansson and Albert de la Chapelle. Assessing thyroid cancer risk using polygenic risk scores. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 2020. 

• Stefania Salvatore, Knut Dagestad Rand, Ivar Grytten, Egil Ferkingstad, Diana Eva Domanska, Lars Holden, Marius Gheorghe, Anthony Mathelier, Ingrid Glad, Geir Kjetil Sandve. Beware the Jaccard: the choice of similarity measure is important and non-trivial in genomic colocalisation analysis. Briefings in Bioinformatics, bbz083, 2019.

• Egil Ferkingstad, Asmundur Oddsson, Solveig Gretarsdottir, Stefania Benonisdottir, Gudmar Thorleifsson, Aimee M Deaton,  Stefan Jonsson, Olafur A. Stefansson, Gudmundur L. Norddahl, Florian Zink, Gudny A. Arnadottir, Bjarni Gunnarsson, Gisli H. Halldorsson, Anna Helgadottir, Brynjar O. Jensson, Ragnar P. Kristjansson, Gardar Sveinbjornsson, David A. Sverrisson, Gisli Masson, Isleifur Olafsson, Gudmundur I. Eyjolfsson, Olof Sigurdardottir, Hilma Holm, Ingileif Jonsdottir, Sigurdur Olafsson, Thora Steingrimsdottir, Thorunn Rafnar, Einar S. Bjornsson, Unnur Thorsteinsdottir, Daniel F Gudbjartsson, Patrick Sulem and Kari Stefansson. Genome-wide association meta-analysis yields 20 loci associated with gallstone disease. Nature Communications 9, Article number: 5101, 2018.

• Egil Ferkingstad, Leonhard Held and Håvard Rue.  Fast and accurate Bayesian model criticism and conflict diagnostics using R-INLA.  Stat 6:331-344, 2017. 

• Boris Simovski, Daniel Vodák, Sveinung Gundersen, Diana Domanska, Abdulrahman Azab, Lars Holden, Marit Holden, Ivar Grytten, Knut Rand, Finn Drabløs, Morten Johansen, Antonio Mora, Christin Lund-Andersen, Bastian Fromm, Ragnhild Eskeland, Odd Stokke Gabrielsen, Egil Ferkingstad, Sigve Nakken, Mads Bengtsen, Alexander Johan Nederbragt, Hildur Sif Thorarensen, Johannes Andreas Akse, Ingrid Glad, Eivind Hovig and Geir Kjetil Sandve.   GSuite HyperBrowser: integrative analysis of dataset collections across the genome and epigenome. GigaScience, 6(7):1-12, 2017.

• Egil Ferkingstad, Oli Pall Geirsson, Birgir Hrafnkelsson, Olafur Birgir Davidsson and Sigurdur Magnus Gardarsson.  A Bayesian hierarchical model for monthly maxima of instantaneous flow.  arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.07667 [stat.AP], 2016.

• Egil Ferkingstad and Håvard Rue.  Improving the INLA approach for approximate Bayesian inference for latent Gaussian models.  Electronic Journal of Statistics, 9(2):2706-2731, 2015. Winner of "Jeffreys Poster Excellence Award" at O'Bayes15, Valencia.

• Egil Ferkingstad, Lars Holden, and Geir Kjetil Sandve. Monte Carlo null models for genomic data.  Statistical Science, 30(1):59-71, 2015.

• Halfdan Rydbeck, Geir Kjetil Sandve, Egil Ferkingstad, Boris Simovski, Morten Rye, and Eivind Hovig.  ClusTrack: Feature extraction and similarity measures for clustering of genome-wide data sets.  PLoS ONE, 10(4):e0123261, 2015. 

• Ida Scheel, Egil Ferkingstad, Arnoldo Frigessi, Ola Haug, Mikkel Hinnerichsen, and Elisabeth Meze-Hausken.  A Bayesian hierarchical model with spatial variable selection: the effect of weather on insurance claims.  Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series C (Applied Statistics), 62(1):85-100, 2013.

• Geir K Sandve, Sveinung Gundersen, Morten Johansen, Ingrid K Glad, Krishanthi Gunathasan, Lars Holden, Marit Holden, Knut Liestøl, Ståle Nygård, Vegard Nygaard, Jonas Paulsen, Halfdan Rydbeck, Kai Trengereid, Trevor Clancy, Finn Drabløs, Egil Ferkingstad, Matus Kalas, Tonje Lien, Morten B. Rye, Arnoldo Frigessi and Eivind Hovig.  The Genomic HyperBrowser: an analysis web server for genome-scale data.  Nucleic acids research, 41(W1):W133-W141, 2013. 

• Anders Løland, Egil Ferkingstad, and Mathilde Wilhelmsen.  Forecasting transmission congestion.  Journal of Energy Markets, 5(3):65-83, 2012. 

• Egil Ferkingstad, Anders Løland, and Mathilde Wilhelmsen.  Causal modeling and inference for electricity markets.  Energy Economics, 33(3):404-412, 2011. 

• Geir Kjetil Sandve, Egil Ferkingstad, and Ståle Nygård. Sequential Monte Carlo multiple testing.  Bioinformatics, 27(23):3235-3241, 2011.

• Geir K Sandve, Sveinung Gundersen, Halfdan Rydbeck, Ingrid K Glad, Lars Holden, Marit Holden, Knut Liestøl, Trevor Clancy, Finn Drabløs, Egil Ferkingstad, et al.  The differential disease regulome.  BMC genomics, 12(1):353, 2011. 

• Geir K Sandve, Sveinung Gundersen, Halfdan Rydbeck, Ingrid K Glad, Lars Holden, Marit Holden, Knut Liestøl, Trevor Clancy, Egil Ferkingstad, Morten Johansen, et al. The genomic hyperbrowser: inferential genomics at the sequence level.  Genome biology, 11(12):R121, 2010. 

• Glenn Lawyer, Egil Ferkingstad, Ragnar Nesvåg, Katarina Varnäs, and Ingrid Agartz.  Local and covariate-modulated false discovery rates applied in neuroimaging.  NeuroImage, 47(1):213-219, 2009.

• Egil Ferkingstad, Arnoldo Frigessi, Håvard Rue, Gudmar Thorleifsson, and Augustine Kong.  Unsupervised empirical Bayesian multiple testing with external covariates.  The Annals of Applied Statistics, pages 714-735, 2008. Winner of 2007 David Byar Young Investigator Award. 

• Egil Ferkingstad, Arnoldo Frigessi, and Heidi Lyng. Indirect genomic effects on survival from gene expression data.  Genome biology, 9(3):R58, 2008.

• Johan Fosen, Egil Ferkingstad, Ørnulf Borgan, and Odd O Aalen.  Dynamic path analysis—a new approach to analyzing time-dependent covariates.  Lifetime data analysis, 12(2):143-167, 2006. 

• Mette Langaas, Bo Henry Lindqvist, and Egil Ferkingstad.  Estimating the proportion of true null hypotheses, with application to DNA microarray data.  Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series B (Statistical Methodology), 67(4):555-572, 2005. 

Teaching

Spring 2017: Taught the basic statistics course (VIÐ263G - Business Statistics A) for 200 students at the Faculty of Business Administration, University of Iceland.

Fall 2016: Taught the basic statistics course (VIÐ305G - Business Statistics A) for 170 students at the Faculty of Business Administration, University of Iceland.

Taught part of the course “Analysis of register data”, Tromsø, Norway, 11.10.2012.

Taught part of the course “Multiple hypothesis testing: Theory and applications to genomics” given at the Norwegian Computing Center, 28-29.02.2008

Taught part of the course “Statistical methods and bioinformatics for the analysis of microarray data” given at the University of Oslo, 23.11.2007.

Teaching assistant for the basic statistics course for medical students, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo

Teaching assistant for several mathematics and statistics courses at NTNU

Presentations 

Genome-wide association meta-analysis highlights the role of cholesterol and bile acid homeostasis in gallstone disease. Poster presentation at the 2018 American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting (ASHG 2018), San Diego, USA, 17.10.2018.

Fast and accurate Bayesian model criticism and conflict detection using integrated nested Laplace approximations (INLA). Contributed presentation at the 2017 Joint Statistical Meetings, Baltimore, USA, 02.08.2017.

Model criticism and conflict diagnostics. Invited lecture at the The 2016 autumn meeting on latent Gaussian models, Trondheim, Norway, 10-12 Nov 2016.

Organizer of the session on "Bayesian computation" and invited speaker at the 26th Nordic Conference in Mathematical Statistics (NORDSTAT2016), Copenhagen, Denmark, June 27-30, 2016.

Improving the INLA approach for approximate Bayesian inference for latent Gaussian models. Poster presentation at the ISBA 2016 World Meeting, Sardinia, Italy, June 13-17, 2016.

Recent progress in the R-INLA project for Bayesian computation.  Invited presentation at the ETH Research Seminar in Statistics, Zürich, Switzerland, 06.11.2015

Improving the INLA approach for approximate Bayesian inference for latent Gaussian models. Contributed presentation at the 2015 Joint Statistical Meetings, Seattle, USA, 10.08.2015

Improving the INLA approach for approximate Bayesian inference for latent Gaussian models. Poster presentation at the 11th International Workshop on Objective Bayes Methodology, Valencia, Spain, 02.06.2015 

Monte Carlo null models for genomic data. Statistics seminar at the Department of Mathematical Sciences, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway, 09.04.2015.

Monte Carlo null models for genomic data. Invited lecture at the 2014 Bergen Young Statistician Day, University of Bergen, Norway, 29.04.2014.

Monte Carlo null models for genomic data. Statistics seminar at the University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland, 13.02.2014

Monte Carlo null models for genomic data. Contributed presentation at the 2013 Joint Statistical Meetings, Montreal, Canada, 05.08.2013.

Indirect genomic effects on cancer survival. 14.06.2010. Invited lecture at the 23rd

Nordic Conference on Mathematical Statistics (NORDSTAT), Voss, Norway.

Indirect genomic effects on cancer survival. 13.05.2009. Contributed lecture at the

5th Conference of the Eastern Mediterranean Region of the International Biometric Society, Istanbul, Turkey.

Unsupervised empirical Bayesian multiple testing with external covariates. 21.07.2008. Poster presentation at the 9th World Conference of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA), Hamilton Island, Australia.

Indirect genomic effects on cancer survival. 14.07.2008. Contributed lecture at the 7th World Congress in Probability and Statistics, Singapore.

Unsupervised empirical Bayesian multiple testing with external covariates. 16.06.2008. Invited lecture at the 22nd Nordic Conference on Mathematical Statistics (NORDSTAT), Vilnius, Lithuania.

Covariate-modulated false discovery rates. 02.08.2007. Contributed lecture at the 2007 Joint Statistical Meetings, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.

Dynamic path analysis. 09.11.2006. Invited lecture at the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute (SAMSI) Workshop on Large Graphical Models and Random Matrices, North Carolina, USA.

Covariate-modulated false discovery rates. 28.06.2006. Invited lecture at the 9th International Vilnius Conference on Probability Theory and Mathematical Statistics, Vilnius, Lithuania.

Selected consulting projects at the Norwegian Computing Center (Norsk Regnesentral)

NORSK HYDRO: Models for electricity markets

RUTER (the Oslo public transport system): Passenger statistics 

iRISK AS: Financial simulation model

THOMSON REUTERS / POINT CARBON: Estimation of water values from live power production data.

Other activities and responsibilities

Co-organizer of the international conference Autumn meeting on Latent Gaussian Models, Trondheim, September 17-18, 2015, with around 50 participants from 14 different countries

Member of the evaluation committee for David Volent Lindberg's PhD thesis defended at the Department of Mathematical Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 17 December 2014.

Referee for Statistics and Computing, Statistica Sinica, Scandinavian Journal of Statistics, Lifetime Data Analysis and Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference. Sensor for university courses.