H. Allen Orr | |
|---|---|
| Awards | 2008Darwin-Wallace Medal |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Evolutionary biology,Genetics |
| Institutions | University of Rochester |
H. Allen Orr (born 1960) is the Shirley Cox Kearns Professor of Biology at theUniversity of Rochester.[1]
Orr earned his bachelor's degree in Biology and Philosophy from theCollege of William and Mary and his Ph.D. in Biology from theUniversity of Chicago. At Chicago, Orr studied underJerry Coyne. He performedpostdoctoral research at theUniversity of California, Davis.[2]
Orr is an evolutionary geneticist whose research focuses on the genetics ofspeciation and the genetics ofadaptation, in particular on the genetic basis of hybrid sterility and inviability. How many genes causereproductive isolation between species? What are the normal functions of these genes and what evolutionary forces drove their divergence? He studies these problems through genetic analysis of reproductive isolation between species ofDrosophila.
In his adaptation work, Orr is interested in theoretical rules or patterns that might characterize the population genetics of adaptation. He studies these patterns using both population genetic theory and experiment.[3] His early work on Drosophila set the terms of much of the current research on speciation.[4] Orr is said to be one of the few evolutionary biologists ever to have made fundamental contributions about how changes occur within lineages over time,and about how lineages split to result in new species.[5]
His bookSpeciation,[6] co-authored withJerry Coyne, was hailed inScience as "exceedingly well-written and persuasive".[7] They consider that studying speciation is largely synonymous with studying reproductive isolation, and explore what we know about where, when, and how isolating barriers evolve. FollowingErnst Mayr they argue that speciation usually occurs where populations are geographically isolated orallopatric. They present evidence for the primacy of natural and sexual selection overgenetic drift in driving speciation. Signatures of positive selection on genes involved in postzygotic isolation and reproductive proteins as well as experimental evidence from both the lab and field connect adaptation and sexual selection to reproductive isolation. They also present evidence for the congruence of theDobzhansky-Muller model for the evolution of postzygotic isolation with the genetics of hybrid incompatibilities in many natural systems. Results that support their conclusions in the book continue to be published.[8]
Orr has been the recipient of aGuggenheim Fellowship, a David and Lucile Packard Fellowship, an Alfred P.Sloan Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, and aRockefeller Foundation Scholar in Residence Fellowship at Bellagio Study Center, Italy. He was awarded the Dobzhansky Prize by theSociety for the Study of Evolution and the Young Investigator Prize by theAmerican Society of Naturalists. He was also named Professor of the Year in Natural Sciences by the Student Association at University of Rochester in 2002. In 2008 he was one of thirteen recipients of theDarwin-Wallace Medal, which is bestowed every 50 years by theLinnean Society of London.
Orr is widely published in some of the leading scientific journals includingNature,Science andPNAS.[9]
Orr's papers include:
