[3] His dissertation was titled Cytoplasmic genetics in mammalian tissue culture cells.

From 1996 to 2002, he was Chairperson and Senior Editor of the Mitochondrial DNA Locus-Specific Database for the Human Genome Organisation (HUGO).

In 2006 he was awarded a visiting professorship at Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan.

[2][6][7][8] In June 2022 he was awarded a honorary degree in Medicine and Surgery by the University of Padua, Italy.

[13] Wallace and his colleagues demonstrated that human mitochondrial DNA is inherited exclusively from the mother[14] and reconstructed the origin and ancient migration patterns of women using variations in mitochondrial DNA sequences.