Sean B. Carroll

For the physicist, see Sean M. Carroll.

Sean B. Carroll (born September 17th, 1960) is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He studies the evolution of cis-regulation in the context of biological development, using Drosophila as a model system. He is Professor of Molecular Biology, Genetics, and Medical Genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Biography

Carroll is at the forefront of a field known as evolutionary developmental biology ("evo-devo"). He is also the author of Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom (ISBN 0-393-06016-0), one of the first popular summary narratives of the field. He is a professor of genetics, medical genetics, and molecular biology at the University of Wisconsin–Madsion, and an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Additionally, he writes a monthly column for the New York Times called "Remarkable Creatures." He is a strong advocate of the primacy of cis-regulatory evolution in the context of morphological evolution.

He is also the author of The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution (ISBN 0-393-06163-9), in which he argues for the irrefutable existence of natural selection by detailing numerous examples of DNA which has recently been traced from current species to long extinct ones.

Education

Carroll received his bachelors at Washington University. He then received his Ph.D. in immunology from Tufts University.

External links

• Official website
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute biography for Sean B. Carroll
• An excerpt from Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo
• Scientific American article "Regulating Evolution: How Gene Switches Make Life"
• The New York Times article "From a Few Genes, Life’s Myriad Shapes"
• NPR:Talk of the Nation, October 20, 2006 podcast "Author Uses DNA Record to Argue Evolution"
• Video of Sean B. Carroll's lecture: "Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species" at the Quantum to Cosmos Festival.