Håkon Kristian Gjessing

Håkon K. Gjessing is a Principal Investigator at the Centre for Fertility and Health at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and adjunct professor at the University of Bergen. His work focuses on developing and applying statistical methods to research on health and disease in populations, with particular emphasis on pregnancy, reproduction, early child development, and family-related health.

One of his main research areas is statistical genetics, including classical biometrical modelling, as well as molecular genetics, including GWAS and methylation analyses. He has developed the R-package “Haplin” (https://haplin.bitbucket.io/) for analyzing genetic family triad data.

He has co-authored a book on statistical models in Event History Analysis (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-0-387-68560-1), and has contributed extensively to perinatal epidemiology, including the development of the Norwegian national reference curves for ultrasound pregnancy dating and fetal size evaluation (https://www.nsfm.no/esnurra), as well as national reference curves for fundal height measurements (https://www.helsedirektoratet.no/brosjyrer/helsekort-for-gravide). 

He has published widely in international journals in probability, epidemiology, biostatistics, and public health, and has played key roles in collaborative research linked to the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) and other large population datasets. He has extensive experience working across disciplines, including collaborations at the intersection of clinical medicine, epidemiology, genetics, and statistical modeling.

Through his research, Gjessing contributes methodological tools and scientific insight that improve the quality of population health research and deepen understanding of health development across early life and generations.