The American Society of Naturalists is pleased to announce that Michael J. Wade, distinguished professor of biology at Indiana University, has been selected to receive the 2009 Sewell Wright Award. The award, named for the pioneering evolutionary geneticist, is given each year to an active senior researcher making fundamental contributions to the Society's goals, namely, promoting the conceptual unification of the biological sciences.
"Mike Wade is widely recognized as one of the most creative intellectual forces in evolutionary biology," said Ellen Ketterson, chair of the award committee and a biologist at Indiana University. "He has made seminal contributions in a wide variety of areas, both theoretical and empirical."
Dr. Wade has published more than 135 academic articles, many in the world's most influential journals. Five of his papers are considered citation classics, having been cited by other researchers more than 200 times. All told, his academic work has been cited over 5500 times.
Dr. Wade's work on multi-level selection stands among his most influential contributions to the study of evolution. As the idea of "selfish genes" reached critical mass in the late 1970s, Dr. Wade showed that selection at the group level could be important, even overriding individual selection in some cases. His work in this area has formed "much of the conceptual landscape for the 'levels of selection' discussion today," Ketterson said.
After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago where he stayed on as a faculty member before moving to Indiana University, Dr. Wade had a central role in developing the influential "Chicago School Theory of Evolutionary Genetics." He and his Chicago colleagues extended the basic statistical framework used by plant and animal breeders into a major evolutionary theory.
"It would be very difficult to overstate the importance of this theory on evolutionary biology," Ketterson said. "The theory launched hundreds of dissertations and the careers of many prominent evolutionary biologists."
"In sum, Mike Wade is one of the most influential population geneticists and evolutionary biologists of his generation and his career is characterized by quantitative thinking, exceptionally clear experimental design, unusual ability to combine theory with laboratory experimentation, strong commitment to students, and courage in the face of controversy," Ketterson added.
The Sewell Wright award has been presented annually since 1991. Dr. Wade will receive the honor next week at the joint meetings of the American Society of Naturalists, the Society for the Study of Evolution, and the Society of Systematic Biologists in Moscow, Idaho.