Hirzi Luqman is a population geneticist with a broad background spanning physics to historical linguistics and evolutionary biology. He received his B.A. (in physics) from the University of Chicago, an MSc (in systematics and comparative linguistics) from the Imperial College London and the Natural History Museum London, and an MSc (in environmental systems science) from ETH Zurich. He received a PhD from ETH Zurich for developing and employing population genetic and statistical modelling approaches to investigate the evolutionary and demographic histories of species. Currently, he is working with human hunter-gatherer groups in Southeast Asia to investigate how their lifestyle and patterns of mobility dictate small-scale (population level) evolutionary processes. His past professional experience include stints at the United Nations, Wildlife Conservation Society, and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research.