Peter Visscher is a quantitative geneticist who studies trait variation in populations. He has developed and applied statistical analysis methods to quantify and dissect the contribution of DNA polymorphisms to variation between individuals, thereby demonstrating the pervasiveness of polygenicity and pleiotropy for quantitative traits and risk of common diseases. His research has applications in medicine, evolutionary biology and agriculture.

Peter trained in quantitative genetics at the University of Edinburgh and is currently Professor of Quantitative Genetics at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. He is an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Senior Principal Research Fellow and was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2010.