Ugo A. Perego is a population geneticist whose main focuses of study have been the origins of Native Americans and the DNA of Joseph Smith, among others. Perego is also a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He has received a BSc and MSc in Health Sciences from Brigham Young University (Provo, Utah) and a PhD in Genetics and Biomolecular Sciences from the University of Pavia (Pavia, Italy) under the mentorship of Professor Antonio Torroni. Perego has lectured extensively internationally, authoring and co-authoring numerous articles on the use of DNA to research ancient population migrations, genealogies, and history, including Mormon history (Complete list of publications).
For twelve years, Perego was a Senior Researcher at the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation (SMGF) and a Scientific Consultant for GeneTree, both located in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is currently the Director of the Rome Italy Institute of Religion, and a Visiting Scientist at the University of Perugia in Italy.
Perego is the owner of The Genetic Genealogy Consultant.