Ford Doolittle

W. Ford Doolittle (* 1942 in Urbana, Illinois) is an emeritus professor of biochemistry and evolutionary biology at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He earned his degree in biochemistry in 1963 from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in 1967 at Stanford University.

As a member of the Faculty of Biochemistry Doolittle has made great progress in the study of cyanobacteria, provided evidence of the endosymbiont theory, developed a theory on the evolution of eukaryotes and is also active in the field of horizontal gene transfer.

Since 1991, Doolittle member of the Royal Society of Canada since 2002 and the National Academy of Sciences. For 2013, the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering has been awarded.

In addition to his research activities Doolittle is at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design artistically active.

Publications (selection )

• Phage -host relationships in Certain strains of Corynebacterium diphtheriae. In: Virology. Vol 29, p 410
• The origin and early evolution of life. In: J. Cracraft, R. W. Bybee (ed.): Evolutionary Science and Society: Educating a New Generation. BSCS, Colorado Springs 2005, p 35
• The root of the tree: lateral gene transfer and the nature of the domains. In: R. A. Garrett, H.-P. Klenk (ed.): Archaea: Evolution, Physiology and Molecular Biology. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. , Malden 2007, ISBN 978-1-4051-4404-9, p 29
• Lateral gene transfer. In: M. Pagel, A. Pomiankowski (ed.): Evolutionary Genomics and Proteomics. Sinauer 2007, ISBN 978-0-87893-654-0, p 45