Francisco J. Ayala | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Francisco José Ayala Pereda (1934-03-12)March 12, 1934[3] |
| Died | March 5, 2023(2023-03-05) (aged 88) |
| Citizenship | Spanish, American (1971–2023) |
| Alma mater | University of Salamanca Columbia University |
| Known for | Population genetics |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | National Medal of Science,Templeton Prize |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Biology,Genetics |
| Institutions | University of California, Davis (1971–1989)[1] University of California, Irvine (1989–2018)[2] |
| Doctoral advisor | Theodosius Dobzhansky |
| Doctoral students | John Avise |
Francisco José Ayala Pereda (March 12, 1934 – March 3, 2023) was a Spanish-Americanevolutionary biologist and philosopher who was a longtime faculty member at theUniversity of California, Irvine, andUniversity of California, Davis.[4]
Ayala was previously president and chairman of the board of theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science.[5] At University of California, Irvine, his academic appointments includedUniversity Professor and Donald Bren Professor of Biological Sciences, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (School of Biological Sciences), Professor of Philosophy (School of Humanities), and Professor of Logic and the Philosophy of Science (School of Social Sciences).[6]
Ayala's employment at UC Irvine ended in 2018 after the university issued a report relating to allegations ofsexual harassment claims against him.[7] Ayala denied having "intentionally caused sexual harassment to anybody."[7] His name was removed from theSchool of Biological Sciences, the Science Library, as well as various graduate fellowships, scholarship programs, and endowed chairs.[8]
Earlier in life, Ayala was aDominican priest,[9][10] ordained in 1960 and leaving the priesthood that same year.[11] After graduating from theUniversity of Salamanca, he moved to the United States in 1961 to study for a PhD atColumbia University. There, he studied for his doctorate underTheodosius Dobzhansky, graduating in 1964.[12] He became aUS citizen in 1971.
Ayala is known for his research on population and evolutionary genetics, and has been called the "Renaissance Man of Evolutionary Biology".[13] His "discoveries have opened up new approaches to the prevention and treatment of diseases that affect hundreds of millions of individuals worldwide", including demonstrating that the reproduction ofTrypanosoma cruzi, the agent ofChagas disease, is mostly the product of cloning, and that only a few clones account for most of this widespread disease.[14]
Ayala served on the advisory board of the now defunctCampaign to Defend the Constitution, an organization that has lobbied in support of theseparation of church and state. He has been publicly critical of U.S. restrictions on federal funding ofembryonic stem cell research. He was also a critic ofintelligent design theories, claiming that they are not onlypseudoscience, but also misunderstood from atheological point of view. He suggested that the theory ofevolution resolvesthe problem of evil, thus being a kind oftheodicy.[15][16][17] Although Ayala generally did not discuss his religious views, he has stated that "science is compatible with religious faith in a personal, omnipotent and benevolent God."[18] He also briefly served, in 1960, as a Dominican priest.[19] Ayala did not say whether he remained a religious believer, not wanting to be "tagged by one side or the other."[20] Ayala served as an expert witness inMcLean v. Arkansas Board of Education, a court case that overturned the mandatory teaching of creationism alongside evolution in grade school science classes.[21]
Ayala attended theBeyond Belief symposium in November 2006. Ayala debatedChristian apologistWilliam Lane Craig in November 2009 on the topic of intelligent design.[22]
On October 18, 2011, the University of California, Irvine (UCI) announced that Ayala would be donating $10 million to the university's School of Biological Sciences. The gift was to be "$1 million a year for the next decade."[23]
Four women (professorKathleen Treseder, another professor, an assistant dean, and one graduate student),[24] alleged that Ayala had sexually harassed them, prompting an investigation led by Erik Pelowitz at UC Irvine's Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity.[7] The university investigators concluded that Ayala violated the university's policies on sexual harassment and sex discrimination in the cases of three of the four women,[7] and found that the conduct at issue extended to 2004 and had led to previous warnings to Ayala.[7] The investigators' report also concluded that Ayala "engaged in a campaign with the highest University officials to influence the outcome of this investigation."[7] Ayala denied most allegations against him, and wrote to the university's chancellor,Howard Gillman, "I have never intentionally caused sexual harassment to anybody. To the extent that my actions may have caused harm to others ... I apologize from the deepest of my heart and of my mind."[7] He resigned effective July 1, 2018.[24]
Ayala was represented in the investigation by attorneySusan Estrich.[24] The investigation against Ayala extended to more than 60 witnesses,[24] and the outcome divided scholars.[7][24]Camilo José Cela Conde[24] andElizabeth Loftus defended him, the latter saying that she was "shocked that this man's life was ruined over this collection of reactions to his behavior" and described the allegations as "thin."[7] In contrast,T. Jane Zelikova, the founder of500 Women Scientists, supported Ayala's ouster.[7]Ann Olivarius, a lawyer and sexual harassment expert who reviewed the report at the request ofScience magazine, said that Ayala did not "have sex with students or pressure them directly for sex" but "clearly made multiple women feel degraded" and continued to do so "after senior university officials warned him to stop acting in these ways."[7]
Ayala returned to his private life, and the university removed his name from the School of Biological Sciences, the Science Library, and endowed chairs that had been named after Ayala.[8][2] TheAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science removed hisfellowship status.[25] The U.S. National Academy of Sciences rescinded Ayala's membership for violation of Section 4 of the NAS Code of Conduct, effective June 23, 2021.[26]
In 2001, Ayala was awarded theNational Medal of Science.[14] On April 13, 2007, he was awarded the first of 100 bicentennial medals atMount Saint Mary's University for lecturing there as the first presenter for the Bicentennial Distinguished Lecture Series. His lecture was entitled "The Biological Foundations of Morality". Other awards he received include the Gold Honorary Gregor Mendel Medal of theCzech Academy of Sciences, the Gold Medal of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the Gold Medal of theStazione Zoologica in Naples, the President's Award of theAmerican Institute of Biological Sciences, theAAAS Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility[27] and 150th Anniversary Leadership Medal of theAAAS, the Medal of theCollege of France, the UCI Medal of the University of California, the 1998 Distinguished Scientist Award from theSACNAS, andSigma Xi's William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement, 2000. In 2010, he was awarded theTempleton Prize.[28] The science library at UCI was named after him from 2010 until 2018, when his name was removed after a university investigation concluded that his conduct with respect to three women violated university policies.[7][29][2] Ayala delivered a lecture at theTrotter Prize ceremony in 2011 entitled "Darwin's Gift to Science and Religion." In 2014, UCI named its School of Biological Sciences the Francisco J. Ayala School of Biological Sciences after Ayala.[30] UCI removed his name from the library and school in 2018, after finding that he sexually harassed at least four women.[2]
Ayala was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1977, and theNational Academy of Sciences in 1980, though his fellowship status in these institutions was later revoked.[31] He was a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society. He was also a foreign member of theRussian Academy of Sciences, theAccademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Rome, theSpanish Royal Academy of Sciences, theMexican Academy of Sciences, and theSerbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He had honorary degrees from theUniversity of Athens, theUniversity of Bologna, theUniversity of Barcelona, theUniversity of the Balearic Islands, theUniversity of León, theUniversity of Madrid, theUniversity of Salamanca, theUniversity of Valencia, theUniversity of Vigo,Far Eastern National University,Masaryk University andUniversity of Warsaw.
Francisco Ayala was born to Francisco Ayala and Soledad Pereda. In the late 1960s he met Mary Henderson, they married on May 27, 1968.[32] They had two sons: Francisco José (born 1969) and Carlos Alberto (born 1972).[33] Their marriage ended in divorce,[34] and in 1985 he married an ecologist namedHana Ayala (née Lostáková, born 1956).[35][36] They lived inIrvine, California. He died from a heart attack on March 3, 2023, in Newport Beach, at age 88.[37][38]
Ayala has published 950 publications and 30 books. Recently published books include:
I shudder in terror at the thought that some people of faith would implicitly attribute this calamity to the Creator's faulty design. I rather see it as a consequence of the clumsy ways of the evolutionary process..
Later, when I was studying the theology in Salamanca, Darwin was a much-welcomed friend. The theory of evolution provided the solution to the remaining component of the problem of evil. As floods and drought were a necessary consequence of the fabric of the physical world, predators and parasites, dysfunctions and diseases were a consequence of the evolution of life. They werenot a result of a deficient or malevolent design: the features of organisms were notdesigned by the Creator.
Religious scholars in the past had struggled with imperfection ... in the living world, which [is] difficult to explain if [it is] the outcome of God's design. ... Evolution came to the rescue. ... The theory of evolution, which at first had seemed to remove the need for God in the world, now has convincingly removed the need to explain the world's imperfections as failed outcomes of God's design.
Dr. Ayala does not say whether he remains a religious believer. "I don't want to be tagged," he said. "By one side or the other."
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| Preceded by | President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 1995 | Succeeded by |
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