Kenneth Henry Wolfe FRS MRIA^[11][12] is an Irish geneticist and professor of genomic evolution at University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland.^[13][11][14]

Wolfe was educated at Trinity College Dublin, where he was awarded Bachelor of Arts degree in genetics in 1986^[3] followed by a PhD in 1990^[6] for research investigating synonymous substitution in vascular plants and mammals supervised by Paul M. Sharp.^{[4][5][6][15]}

Wolfe's research focuses on comparative genomics, yeast genetics and bioinformatics.^[2][16][17] Work in his laboratory investigates the evolution of eukaryotic genomes and chromosome organisation.^[12] He is best known for his discovery that the genome of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae underwent complete genome duplication about 100 million years ago,^[18] an event that is now known to be the result of hybridization between two divergent species.^[12] This finding reshaped our understanding both of yeast biology, and of mechanisms of genome evolution in eukaryotes.^[12] His subsequent discoveries of similar ancient genome duplications (paleopolyploidy)^[19] during human evolution, and in almost all families of flowering plants, led to the realisation that whole-genome duplication is widespread.^[12] His group also studies the origin and evolution of mating systems in yeasts, and the process of mating-type switching in which one cell type can change into another by moving or replacing a section of chromosome.^[12]

Wolfe was a postdoctoral researcher with Jeffrey D. Palmer^[7] at Indiana University Bloomington before returning to Ireland in 1992 to establish his research group in the genetics department of Trinity College Dublin,^[20][3] where he remained for over 20 years. In 2013, he moved to University College Dublin's UCD School of Medicine and Conway Institute.^[21] As of 2017^[update] his most highly cited peer reviewed papers^[2][14][16] have been published in leading scientific journals including Nature,^[18][22] PNAS,^[23] The Plant Cell,^[19][24] Genome Research^[25] and Nature Reviews Genetics.^[7]

Former doctoral students from the Wolfe lab include Mario A. Fares,^[4] Aoife McLysaght,^[4][8][9] Estelle Proux-Wéra^[4] and Cathal Seoighe.^[5][10]