Russell McLaughlin graduated from University of Bristol in 2005 with a BSc in Neuroscience. He moved to Dublin two years later to undertake a PhD in Molecular Medicine under Professor Dan Bradley in the Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin. He completed a higher diploma (HDip) in Statistics at Trinity College in 2009 and defended his PhD thesis, “From single nucleotide polymorphisms to next-generation sequencing in the complex genetics of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis”, in 2012. In September 2016 Russell was appointed Ussher Assistant Professor in Genome Analysis in the Smurfit Institute of Genetics at Trinity College Dublin, where he now leads the Complex Trait Genomics group. In 2018 Russell was awarded the ENCALS Young Investigator Award for ALS research.