Naomi Wray is a leading complex trait statistical geneticist. She has significantly contributed to quantitative genetic and evolutionary selection theory, with applications in agriculture and medicine. Her theoretical work on the prediction of rates of inbreeding in populations undergoing selection, led to changes in agricultural selection programmes worldwide in balancing genetic improvement with levels of inbreeding. She has developed innovative quantitative genetic methods for the estimation of genetic parameters from genetic epidemiology studies and methods for genetic risk prediction. She has applied these to psychiatric disorders, thereby contributing to the elucidation of the genetic basis of common, distressing, complex diseases.