2015 American Society of Naturalists Awards

Previous articleNext article Free2015 American Society of Naturalists AwardsPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreSewall Wright AwardSarah OttoThe Sewall Wright Award honors a senior researcher who has made and continues to make fundamental contributions to the goals of the Society, advancing the conceptual unification of the biological sciences. The recipient of the 2015 Sewall Wright Award is Sarah Otto, professor in the Department of Zoology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.Since the days of Sewall Wright, the nature of scientific research, including research in biological sciences, has been transformed from the work of individual scientists to the efforts of large groups of researchers, to take advantage of the opportunities that have emerged to tackle big questions. Nonetheless, among the limiting factors for scientific progress are shortcomings in the prevailing conceptual framework and the lack of sufficiently comprehensive theories. The Sewall Wright Award recognizes Sarah (Sally) Otto’s excellence for her contributions to the conceptual framework of evolutionary genetic theory. Sally Otto’s primary research interests include the evolution of sex and recombination, the role of polyploidy in evolution, and the diversity of sex determination mechanisms. She is a theoretician determined to advance the understanding of both theory and real populations. Thus, in the case of the evolution of sex and recombination, many models and analyses have assumed, for convenience, infinitely large populations. Her important finding here is that sex is favored over a broader range of parameter values in finite populations than it is in infinite populations. A characteristic of Sally’s work is her development of new lines of modeling, in the context of the types of empirical data that are available and the types of experiments that are doable. She has written an award-winning volume together with Troy Day, A Biologist’s Guide to Mathematical Modeling (Princeton University Press, 2007), where she shares her insights into modeling with a broader community of population biologists.One area of research that is very active and of obvious importance to many evolutionary biologists is the coupling between the evolution of particular traits and the influence of the trait on extinction-speciation dynamics in an evolutionary radiation. This is a hard problem: the information available from molecular phylogenies and the distribution of trait values is not typically sufficient to resolve the issue. This is also a problem that is much related to Sewall Wright’s interests in adaptive evolution. Sally and her collaborators have developed more mechanistic models that make explicit the effect of mean trait value on speciation and extinction rates. One trait that may influence speciation and/or extinction rates, and which Sally Otto has been especially interested in, is polyploidy, which is ubiquitous in plants but whose importance in adaptation and the evolution of biodiversity remains incompletely understood. The most cited paper in Otto’s publication list, titled “Polyploid Incidence and Evolution” (Annual Review of Genetics 34 [2000]: 401–437), is a comprehensive review of the role of polyploidy in evolution. One could infer from the high prevalence of polyploidy in plants that polyploids are frequently formed and/or polyploids have especially high net diversification rate (speciation rate minus extinction rate), but it is not clear which is the case. A model-based analysis that Sally Otto and her colleagues performed suggested that polyploidization tends to reduce net diversification rate.Sexual reproduction is the predominant mode of reproduction in eukaryotic organisms; however, sexual reproduction is based not on one successful mechanism but on a wide variety of sex determination mechanisms. Sally Otto is involved with a consortium that is putting together a database of relevant information for thousands of species of plants and animals. With such data placed in a phylogenetic context, one could hope to answer questions about the evolution of sex determination systems. Her participation in this consortium highlights Otto’s commitment to theory that is informed by high-quality data and theory and models that help analyze those data.Sally Otto has served as the Vice President of the Society, and she has published many of her most influential papers in The American Naturalist. She has served on the board or council of many societies in Canada, the United States, and Europe. She has received many honors and prizes, and she is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (USA).Ilkka Hanski, Chair, on behalf of the Sewall Wright Award Committee: Michael Wade, Maria Servedio, and Judith BronsteinE. O. Wilson Naturalist AwardMarlene ZukProfessor Marlene Zuk from the University of Minnesota has been awarded the 2014 E. O. Wilson Naturalist Award. This award honors an active investigator in midcareer who has made significant contributions to the knowledge of a particular ecosystem or group of organisms and whose research and writing illuminate principles of evolutionary biology and an enhanced aesthetic appreciation of natural history.Professor Zuk embodies the meaning and intent of this award through her extensive studies of sexual selection and behavior in crickets and other organisms, her groundbreaking evolutionary work that established a central role for parasitism and immunity in mate choice, and her publication of four highly successful books that illuminate major principles of biology in general and evolution and behavior in particular and that challenge conventional wisdom.Professor Zuk’s early research career centered on tests of a novel and controversial hypothesis: that bright plumage of birds evolved as a signal of good health and parasite resistance, thus implicating parasites and immunity in sexual selection and mate choice. She developed and tested these ideas, initially using comparative data as a graduate student with Professor William D. Hamilton and later in extensive studies of field crickets and jungle fowl. These studies involved deft, inspired combinations of field with laboratory experiments and observations, driven by the “feel for the organism” that represents the hallmark of a truly accomplished naturalist. Professor Zuk’s research on sexual selection and immune function has drawn striking new links between evolution, behavior, and physiology and established a new field of evolutionary-based studies that focus on the causes and consequences of variation in health among organisms in natural populations.What is perhaps most remarkable about Professor Zuk’s diverse contributions is that her rigorous field and laboratory work is augmented by delightful exposition of biological principles in her popular books on sex, parasites, and human evolution. Such outreach and sharing of the joy and enthusiasm of the natural world with a larger audience epitomizes the societal as well as scientific role of naturalists in our society, as intellectual leaders and role models who entertain as well as educate by illuminating the wonders of our biological world.In sum, Professor Zuk is a creative and dedicated biologist and naturalist who is particularly well recognized for her studies on sexual selection and mate choice in crickets and for promoting science in the public domain. With these attributes, she symbolizes the intent of the E. O. Wilson Naturalist Award and its notable line of recipients.Bernie Crespi, Chair, on behalf of the E. O. Wilson Award Committee: Rosemary Grant and Susan Alberts Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The American Naturalist Volume 187, Number 1January 2016 Published for The American Society of Naturalists Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/684175 © 2016 by The University of Chicago. 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