Steinar Thorvaldsen is a professor of information science in the Department of Education, University of Tromso. His research interests include bioinformatics, comparative genomics, population genetics, and machine learning. His academic activities are applied and multidisciplinary including informatics, natural science, mathematics, statistics, and the history of science. In 2001, he received the Research Prize at Tromso University College. He is an author of several textbooks in Norwegian, and has also been strongly involved in communicating and popularizing science for the general public.