Charles Rotimi is a researcher who studies the etiology of complex diseases and health disparities and advocates for the inclusion of greater racial and ethnic diversity in genomic repositories. In the early 2000s, Rotimi spearheaded the recruiting of African communities for participation in the International HapMap Project. As director of the Center for Research on Genomics and Global Health, or CRGGH, at the National Institutes of Health, or NIH, Rotimi led governmental research on human genetic variation and patterns of disease. Rotimi is a founding member of the Human Heredity and Health in Africa, or H3Africa, initiative, which aims to increase the representation of African populations in global genetic studies. Through his epidemiological research, leadership in advocacy groups for the support of African scientists, and his collaboration in genomic diversity initiatives, Rotimi promotes racial and ethnic representation in genetic research, especially regarding the inclusion of African people and the African diaspora.

Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza (1922–2018) was a researcher whose work explored the relationships between human genetic diversity and historical migrations, integrating genetics and anthropology to determine how humans populated the world. Prior to his work in human genetics, Cavalli-Sforza studied genetic recombination in bacteria and helped determine the system of genetic inheritance within Escherichia coli in the late 1940s. After pivoting his research focus and assuming a long-term teaching and research position at Stanford University in Stanford, California, in 1971, Cavalli-Sforza participated in studies that modeled human migration, focusing on the global spread of agriculture during the Neolithic period. He was also one of the founders in the creation of the Human Genome Diversity Project, or HGDP, an international scientific collaboration launched in the early 1990s to map the genetic diversity of human populations across the globe. Cavalli-Sforza’s interdisciplinary approach to studying human history and human evolution left its mark on the fields of both genetics and anthropology in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

In 2004, the Havasupai Tribe filed a lawsuit against the Arizona Board of Regents and several Arizona State University professors after discovering that the scientists had used blood samples from members of the tribe for research on type 2 diabetes in unrelated genetic studies. The study participants were not aware the researchers were using their samples in the study of highly taboo topics in Havasupai culture, such as schizophrenia, ethnic migration, and population inbreeding. The Havasupai Tribe alleged that the collection of samples constituted a violation of informed consent, or an individual’s agreement to participate after receiving an accurate and comprehensive explanation of the intended usage of their genetic material. The lawsuit, Havasupai Tribe v. Arizona State University Board of Regents, reached a settlement in April 2010 that included monetary compensation from Arizona State University and the return of the samples to the Havasupai community. Although the case did not set an official legal precedent, it sparked discourse regarding informed consent and ethical research practices when conducting genetic research with Native American communities and other vulnerable populations.