Himla (Himladevi) Soodyall (b Durban, 1963[1]) is a South African geneticist involved in finding some of the oldest human genetic lines, mainly focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa.
[2] Her work on DNA has pointed to southern Africa as the most likely geographic region of origin of the human species.
[4] She was awarded a Bronze Order of Mapungubwe in 2005 for her "Outstanding contributions in the field of science" in South Africa.
Her PhD, on human population and evolutionary genetics, was obtained in 1993 under the supervision of Trefor Jenkins.
[1] In 2001 she was appointed director of the Human Genomic Diversity and Disease Research Unit at WITS.