John Avise

John Charles Avise
Born	1948 (age 75–76) Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
Citizenship	American
Alma mater	University of Michigan
Known for	Phylogeography, Conservation Genetics, Evolutionary Genetics, Ecological Genetics
Scientific career
Fields	Genetics, Evolutionary Biology, Phylogeography
Institutions	University of California, Irvine

John Charles Avise (born 1948) is an American evolutionary geneticist, conservationist, ecologist and natural historian. He is an Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Ecology & Evolution, University of California, Irvine, and was previously a Distinguished Professor of Genetics at the University of Georgia.

Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, he received his B.S. in 1970 in Natural Resources from the University of Michigan; his M.A.in 1971 in Zoology from the University of Texas at Austin; and his Ph.D. in 1975 in Genetics from the University of California, Davis. Avise's research entails the use of molecular markers to analyze ecological, behavioral, and evolutionary processes in nature. It covers a broad spectrum of topics: genetic parentage, reproductive modes, population structure, speciation, hybridization, introgression, phylogeography, systematics, and phylogenetics. He has conducted research on diverse animal taxa ranging from corals and sponges to representatives of all the major vertebrate groups. The typical goal of his laboratory is to unveil ecological or evolutionary features of the organisms, but he and his students also try to elucidate genetic and evolutionary properties of various protein and DNA molecules. The theory and practice of evolutionary genetics are relevant to behavioral ecology and conservation biology, which provide underlying themes for much of his research. Avise views himself as a naturalist at heart, a geneticist by training, and his career has been devoted to wedding these two areas. His education came at a time when molecular methods were being introduced to population biology, and he was among earliest to appreciate that molecular markers could open the entire biological world for genetic scrutiny.

Research and scientific contributions

In 1972, Avise published the first multi-locus allozyme analysis in any fish species, and uncovered a profound effect of genetic drift in nature. During the 1970s and 1980s, his protein-electrophoretic work on many fishes, mammals, birds, and other creatures demonstrated that natural populations are genetically highly polymorphic and that molecular markers can be utilized to address many natural-history topics that previously had been analyzed solely from phenotypic data. He thereby helped to pioneer the fields of molecular ecology and molecular evolution. In 1994, he published Molecular Markers, Natural History and Evolution, a comprehensive textbook on the application of genetic markers in ecological, behavioral, and evolutionary contexts. In the late 1970s, he was among the first to introduce mitochondrial (mt) DNA to population biology. This seminal work laid the foundation for phylogeography, a field for which he is recognized as the founding father. Among the many phylogeographic applications for which his laboratory paved the way were genetic assessments of marine and freshwater turtles, catadromous eels, unisexual fishes, and regional assemblages of birds, fishes, mammals, herps, and marine invertebrates. In the 1990s, Avise capitalized upon highly polymorphic microsatellite loci to analyze animal mating systems in nature, on creatures ranging from sea spiders and snails to polyembryonic armadillos to numerous fishes, including male-pregnant pipefishes and seahorses, and hermaphroditic killifishes. This line of inquiry eventuated in many articles plus a trilogy of authored books dealing with evolutionary perspectives on clonality (2008), hermaphroditism (2011), and pregnancy (2013). In addition to research in molecular ecology and evolution, Avise has published on the relevance of evolutionary genetics to human affairs ranging from religious beliefs, to the human genome, to genetically modified organisms, to the history and philosophy of science, and even to the roles of humor and poetry in communicating science to the public. In 2006, Avise helped to inaugurate a series of annual Colloquia, sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, broadly entitled "In the Light of Evolution" (ILE). Each ILE installment highlighted a different topic that can be informed by evolutionary thought and has broader societal relevance. Proceedings of ten ILE colloquia were published in special issues of PNAS, and eight of them also appeared as edited books from the National Academies Press.

During his career, Avise was the Major Advisor for 26 PhD or M.S. students and 11 postdocs. Nearly all of these trainees went on to assume faculty positions or similar professions around the world, thereby seeding many institutions with researchers in the fields of molecular ecology, natural history, phylogeography, and evolution. The following are some of the numerous universities where Avise's graduate students or postdoctoral trainees have held or currently hold faculty positions: Colorado State University; University of Arkansas; Purdue University; University of Louisiana at Lafayette; East Carolina University; University of South Florida; University of Hawaii; Cornell University; George Washington University; Texas A&M University; University of Idaho; Georgia Tech University; State University of New York at Binghamton; HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Alabama; Oregon State University; South Carolina Department of Natural Resources; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama; U.S. Geological Service in Alaska; University of Florida; Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology; University of Maryland; Michigan State University; National Institutes of Health; University of California at Santa Cruz; Duquesne University; Oxford University in England; University College of London; University of British Columbia; Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University; Queens University in Northern Ireland; Frost Museum of Science in Miami; Ocean University in the Peoples Republic of China; the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; University of Nebraska; and James Cook University in Australia. At most of these institutions, a new generation of graduate students from his trainees has given Avise a large number of "academic grandchildren", thereby helping to expand his intellectual legacy.

Avise has published more than 360 scientific papers, plus more than 30 books (16 of which were solo-authored). Some of the books are textbooks intended for professionals and their students, while many of the other books provide educational outreach about natural history, biology, and evolution for a broader audience. Avise has served on the editorial boards for 15 scientific journals, and for several years was a member of the Board of Biology of the National Research Council. He has also traveled and lectured widely, having delivered invited lectures in all 50 U.S. states, and 38 countries.

In 2020, Avise retired from the University of California Irvine so his status is now Professor Emeritus at that institution. In 2021, Avise donated all of his writings (including 32 authored or edited books plus 365 journal articles) to the Library of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, PA.

Honors and distinctions

• 1985: Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
• 1986: Creative Research Medal, University of Georgia
• 1987: Vice-President, Society for the Study of Evolution
• 1988: Lamar Dodd Award, University of Georgia
• 1991: Member, National Academy of Sciences USA
• 1992: Sloan Foundation Fellow in Molecular Evolution
• 1994: Earle R. Greene Award, Georgia Ornithological Society
• 1994: President, Society for the Study of Evolution
• 1994: Fellow, American Ornithologists' Union
• 1994: Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 1997: William Brewster Memorial Award, American Ornithologists' Union
• 1997: Wilhelmine E. Key Award, American Genetic Association
• 1998: Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation
• 2000: President, American Genetic Association
• 2004: President, Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
• 2006: Molecular Ecology Prize, Molecular Ecology Journal
• 2007: Alfred Russel Wallace Award, International Biogeography Society
• 2008: National Associate Award, National Research Council
• 2010: Distinguished Faculty Award for Research, University of California at Irvine
• 2011: Member, American Philosophical Society
• 2014: Genetics Hall of Excellence, American Fisheries Society
• 2018: Fellow, California Academy of Sciences

Publications

• John Avise Publications (University Website)

Some of his 32 Books:

• Avise, John C. (2016), Sketches of Nature: A Geneticist's Look at the Biological World During a Golden Era for Molecular Ecology, Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-801945-0
• Avise, John C. [and Francisco J. Ayala] (2014), Essential Readings in Evolutionary Biology, Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-1421413051
• Avise, John C. (2014), Conceptual Breakthroughs in Evolutionary Genetics: A Brief History of Shifting Paradigms, Academic Press. ISBN 978-0124201668
• Avise, John C. (2013), Evolutionary Perspectives on Pregnancy, Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231160605
• Avise, John C. (2011), Hermaphroditism: A Primer on the Biology, Ecology, and Evolution of Dual Sexuality, Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231153867.
• Avise, John C. (2010), Inside the Human Genome: A Case for Non-Intelligent Design, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-539343-0.
• Avise, John C. (2008). Clonality: The Genetics, Ecology, and Evolution of Sexual Abstinence in Vertebrate Animals. Oxford University Press USA. ISBN 978-0-19-536967-0.
• Avise, John C. (2007). On Evolution. The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-8689-8.
• Avise, John C. (2006). Evolutionary Pathways in Nature: A Phylogenetic Approach (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-67417-1.
• Avise, John C. (2004). Molecular Markers, Natural History and Evolution (2nd Revised ed.). Sinauer Associates Inc.,U.S. ISBN 978-0-87893-041-8.
• Avise, John C. (2002). Genetics in the Wild (illustrated ed.). Smithsonian Books. ISBN 978-1-58834-069-6.
• Avise, John C. (2001). Captivating Life: A Naturalist in the Age of Genetics (illustrated ed.). Smithsonian Books. ISBN 978-1-56098-957-8.
• Avise, John C. (2000). Phylogeography: The History and Formation of Species. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-66638-2.
• Avise, John C. (1998). The Genetic Gods: Evolution and Belief in Human Affairs. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-00533-4.
• Avise, John C; Hamrick, James L (1996). Conservation Genetics: Case Histories from Nature. Chapman & Hall, New York. ISBN 978-0-412-05581-2.

External links

• Quotations related to John Avise at Wikiquote