Francisco J. Ayala

Francisco José Ayala ( born 1934 in Madrid, Spain) is an American geneticist, evolutionary biologist and philosopher. He is Professor of Biology and Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Irvine.

Life

Francisco José Ayala studied at the University of Madrid, where in 1955 he reached his BS degree. He worked on Drosophila, which multiplies so fast that it was the ideal object of investigation evolutionary biologist. Ayala also studied theology and was ordained a priest in 1960. In 1960 he met Theodosius Dobzhansky. In 1961 he went to the USA in 1963 and reached his MA and in 1964 his Ph.D. at Columbia University in New York. He first worked at the Rockefeller University in New York. In 1971 he became an American citizen.

He moved with his wife Hana and his children to California. There he took in 1971 a professorship in the Department of Genetics at the University of California, Davis. His former teacher Theodosius Dobzhansky also moved to Davis. Here are the books ' Evolving ', ' Molecular Evolution ' and 'Modern Genetics ' emerged. In 1981, he was the main witness in court proceedings ( McLean vs. Arkansas Board of Education. ) In Arkansas, where it was about the place of religion and evolution in the classroom ( creationism - the theory of evolution ). In 1987 he moved to the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine, where he was offered a professorship at the Department of Philosophy. Here he was able to combine his interests in religion, metaphysics, and philosophy with his scientific research. He also conducted research on Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease.

His main research interests are:

  • To determine study of DNA and protein sequences to the story and the time course of evolution ( molecular clock )
  • Investigation of the population structure and evolution of parasitic protozoa, such as the causative agents of malaria and Chagas' disease
  • Studying gene regulation, evolution of pseudogenes, Origin and evolution of introns
  • Philosophical reflections on science (biology), ethics and religion.

Ayala was a member of President Clinton's Scientific Advisory Committee since 1992. From 1994 to 2001 he was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science ( AAAS). From 1994 to 2001 he was in the Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology of the American president. He is the author of more than 700 articles and 15 books.

Ayala is regarded as critics of fundamentalist religious- motivated intelligent design movement. These designated by their representatives as a theory idea was full of errors. The structure of organisms is instead not what would be expected from an intelligent designer, but imperfect and worse. Defects, faults, oddities, waste and cruelty would pull through the world of life. All this is the best means to explain the biological evolution. 2010 Ayala received the Templeton Prize.

Honors

Publications

  • Studies in the Philosophy of Biology ( 1974)
  • Molecular Evolution (1976 )
  • Evolution ( 1977)
  • Evolving: The Theory and Processes of Organic Evolution ( 1979)
  • Population and Evolutionary Genetics: A Primer (1982).
  • Modern Genetics ( second edition, 1984)
  • Tempo and Mode in Evolution ( 1995)
  • Genetics and The Origin of Species (1997)
  • Variation and Evolution in Plants and Microorganisms (2000)
Bill Clinton Integrated Authority File
345341
de