The story
HUGO was established at the first meeting on genome mapping and sequencing at Cold Spring Harbor in 1988. The idea of starting the organization stemmed from South African biologist Sydney Brenner, who is best known for his significant contributions to work on the genetic code and other areas of molecular biology, as well as winning the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
A Founding Council was elected at the meeting with a total of 42 scientists from 17 different countries, with Victor A. McKusick serving as founding President. In 2016, HUGO was located at the EWHA Womans University in Seoul, South Korea. In 2020, the HUGO headquarters moved to Farmington, Connecticut, US.
HUGO has convened a Human Genome Meeting (HGM) every year since 1996.
In partnership with geneticist Yuan-Tsong Chen and Alice Der-Shan Chen, founders of the Chen Foundation, HUGO presents the Chen Award to those with research accomplishments in human genetics and genomics in Asia Pacific.
In 2020, HUGO merged with the Human Genomic Variation Society (HGVS) and Human Variome Project (HVP).
Presidents
Piero Carninci (Italy) – 2025 to present
Ada Hamosh (US) – 2023 to 2025
Charles Lee (South Korea, US) – 2017 to 2023
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Stylianos Antonarakis (Switzerland) – 2012 to 2017
Edison Liu (Singapore) – 2007 to 2012
Leena Peltonen (Finland) – 2005 to 2007
Yoshiyuki Sakaki (Japan) – 2002 to 2005
Lap-Chee Tsui (Canada) – 2000 to 2002
Gert‐Jan van Ommen (Netherlands) – 1998 to 1999
Grant Sutherland (Australia) – 1996 to 1997
Thomas Caskey (US) – 1993 to 1995
Walter Bodmer (UK) – 1991 to 1993
Victor McKusick (US), Founding President – 1988 to 1991
From Wikipedia’s article on Human Genome Organisation, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4