| 1 | Name: | Dr. Marcus William Feldman | |
| Institution: | Stanford University; Xi'an Jiaotong University, China | ||
| Year Elected: | 2011 | ||
| Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 203. Evolution & Ecology, Systematics, Population Genetics, Paleontology, and Physical Anthropology | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1942 | ||
Marcus Feldman is Director of the Morrison Institute for Population and Resource Studies and Burnet C. and Mildred Finley Wohlford Professor of Biology at Stanford University, and Director of the Center for Complexity Studies, Xi'an Jiaotong University, China. Marcus Feldman’s contributions to evolutionary theory include over four-hundred fifty refereed publications and nine books, mentoring over fifty doctoral and postdoctoral students, including fifteen women from fourteen countries, who remain in academia today and who constitute a truly dominant worldwide force in evolutionary studies, and his application of evolutionary analysis to important social problems. Early in his career, Feldman became a leader in the study of natural selection acting on many genes simultaneously, i.e., multilocus selection. He used this as a basis for his famous studies on the evolution of genes that control important influences on the evolution of other genes, namely the evolution of mutation, recombination, and migration. His analytical framework remains the gold standard for quantitative studies of modifier genes, for example in the evolution of sex. With Cavalli-Sforza, Feldman originated the quantitative study of cultural evolution and gene-culture co-adaptation. Largely due to Feldman’s rigorous approach to this theory, it is now a major component of anthropological theory and behavioral economics. The mathematical and statistical approach that Feldman originated has been incorporated into such diverse fields as the evolution of lactose tolerance, the advantage of learning in changing environments, and heritability of intelligence. With colleagues in China, Feldman applied his theory of cultural coevolution to a major problem in Chinese demography, the excess of male births and the cultural preference for sons. His projections for future sex ratios, made using his models of cultural transmission and evolution, have led to major administrative programs aimed at alleviating the shortage of females. In the field of human genomics since 2001, Feldman has spearheaded the work on DNA polymorphisms, showing the central importance of ancient human migrations to the present pattern of human genomic variation. He has used this work to further his career-long fight against the use of genetics to justify racism. Over the past fifteen years, working with colleague Odling-Smee and former postdoctoral fellow Kevin Laland, Feldman has developed the quantitative theory of niche construction. This theory extends standard evolutionary theory by allowing the inheritance of organisms’ environments, introducing a complex pattern of feedbacks between genetic and environmental evolution. These feedbacks produce evolutionary dynamics not seen in standard evolutionary theory but which can describe how environmental effects of human culture can affect human genetic evolution. In 2011 Feldman was honored as the Dan David laureat for his work in evolution. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2011. | |||