Ásgeir R. Helgason is an Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

ic scientist working at Karolinska Institutet

Karolinska Institutet

Karolinska institutet is a medical university in Solna within the Stockholm urban area, Sweden, and one of Europe's largest medical universities...

 in Sweden. From 2002 an associate professor in psychology at the Departments of Oncology-Pathology and Public Health at the Karolinska Institutet

Karolinska Institutet

Karolinska institutet is a medical university in Solna within the Stockholm urban area, Sweden, and one of Europe's largest medical universities...

 and Reykjavik University

Reykjavík University

Reykjavík University is a private university in Reykjavík, Iceland, and is chartered by the Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of Icelandic Industries, and the Confederation of Icelandic Employers....

, Iceland.

He is best known for his population based research on sexual function

Sexual function

Sexual function is a model developed at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, defining different aspects of the assessment of sexual dysfunction comprises the following components....

 and emotional isolation

Emotional isolation

Emotional isolation is a term used to describe a state of isolation where the individual is emotionally isolated, but may have a well functioning social network....

 in elderly men and prostate cancer

Prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...

 patients, patient trade-off

Patient trade-off

The trade-off dilemma refers to the choice between the expected beneficial and harmful effects in terms of patient survival and quality of life for a particular treatment. The choice involves a trade-off so it is of central importance for the patient and the physician to have access to empirical...

 and his work on smoking cessation

Smoking cessation

Smoking cessation is the process of discontinuing the practice of inhaling a smoked substance. This article focuses exclusively on cessation of tobacco smoking; however, the methods described may apply to cessation of smoking other substances that can be difficult to stop using due to the...

 and quitline

Quitline

Quitline is a telephone helpline offering treatment for addiction and behavior change/issues. Presently most quitlines treat tobacco or alcohol addiction...

s. Helgason was a prime mover in the establishment of the Swedish and Icelandic national quitlines for smoking cessation (1998) and responsible for their development. He is presently engaged in the development of a similar telephone based proactive

ProActive

ProActive is Java grid middleware for parallel, distributed, and multi-threaded computing. It is developed by the OW2 Consortium, including INRIA, CNRS, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, and ActiveEon...

 treatment for people who seek help for controlling their alcohol

Alcohol

In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....

 consumption (alcohol quitline

Quitline

Quitline is a telephone helpline offering treatment for addiction and behavior change/issues. Presently most quitlines treat tobacco or alcohol addiction...

). Other work includes research on motivational interviewing

Motivational interviewing

Motivational interviewing refers to a counseling approach in part developed by clinical psychologists Professor William R Miller, Ph.D. and Professor Stephen Rollnick, Ph.D. The concept of motivational interviewing evolved from experience in the treatment of problem drinkers, and was first...

 and palliative care

Palliative care

Palliative care is a specialized area of healthcare that focuses on relieving and preventing the suffering of patients...

 of cancer patients and its effect on long term well-being in surviving spouses.

Ásgeir has two sons Hugi and Muni after Odin

Odin

Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....

's ravens Hugin and Munin

Hugin and Munin

In Norse mythology, Huginn and Muninn are a pair of ravens that fly all over the world, Midgard, and bring the god Odin information...

. His brother-in-law is writer and humorist Tim Moore

Tim Moore (writer)

Tim Moore is a British travel writer and humorist. He was educated at Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith. In addition to his seven published travelogues to date, his writings have appeared in various publications including Esquire, The Sunday Times, The Independent, The Observer and the Evening...

, his father is scientist Helgi Valdimarsson

Helgi Valdimarsson

Helgi Valdimarsson MD. , Professor of Immunology at the University of Iceland from 1981. Established the first Immunology laboratory of Iceland in 1983. Senior Lecturer at St Mary's Hospital Medical school, London, England 1975-1981 and visiting Professor at St. Mary’s 1981-1990. Former editor of...

 and he is a brother of scientist Agnar Helgason

Agnar Helgason

Agnar Helgason is an Icelandic scientist working with genetic anthropology. PhD in Biological Anthropology, University of Oxford, 2001. He is best known for his research on the origin of Icelandic population. He is a brother of Ásgeir Helgason, the son of Helgi Valdimarsson and a brother-in-law of...

.