2009 Kyoto Prize Laureates

Basic Sciences

Biological Sciences(Evolution, Behavior, Ecology, Environment)

Barbara Rosemary Grant

/  Evolutionary Biologist

1936 -

Professor Emeritus, Princeton University

Commemorative Lectures

In Charles Darwin's Footsteps

2009

11 /11 Wed

Place:Kyoto International Conference Center

Workshop

Evolution, Speciation and Long-Term Field Study

2009

11 /12 Thu

13:00 - 17:10

Place:Kyoto International Conference Center

Achievement Digest

Demonstrating Rapid Evolution Caused by Natural Selection in Response to Environmental Changes

Through the long-term field study more than 35 years on Darwin’s finches on the Galápagos Islands, the Grants demonstrated that morphology and behavior of organisms are altered rapidly by natural selection in response to recurrent environmental changes. Their work has not only made enormous contributions to evolutionary biology and ecology, but also has had a profound influence on the general public through demonstrating the evolution by natural selection in the field.

Citation

Dr. Peter Raymond Grant and Dr. Barbara Rosemary Grant have conducted the long-term field study more than thirty-five years since 1973, on Darwin’s finches on the Galápagos Islands, and demonstrated that morphology and behavior of organisms are altered rapidly by natural selection in response to environmental fluctuations. Their detailed work of evolutionary mechanisms has not only made enormous contributions to evolutionary biology and ecology, but also has had a profound influence on the general public through demonstrating the evolution by natural selection in the field.

The most impressive achievement of the Grants is their detailed study of how, within a dramatically changing natural environment, the beak size and shape of ground finches (genus Geospiza) have evolved rapidly by natural selection, as well as the mechanisms and the condition for the rapid evolution. Although there had been attempts showing natural selection before their work, the Grants were the first to closely trace the evolution taking place in the field for more than thirty-five years, and to study in detail all the aspects related to the evolutionary changes, such as the ecological factors responsible for natural selection, evolutionary responses, the directions in which many traits evolve, and the mechanisms that maintain the genetic variation necessary for evolutionary change. In evolutionary biology, where experimental studies tend to be difficult, the Grants’ empirical research has made the most important contribution since Darwin in making evolutionary biology as a science in which proof is possible.

Through long-term research on Darwin’s finches on the Galápagos Islands, the Grants have also elucidated a variety of evolutionary phenomena. These include the relationship between birdsong and reproductive isolation, genetic correlations among traits and their evolutionary changes, migration to new islands and the founder effect, detection of inbreeding depression in the natural populations, genetic introgression due to hybridization, and character displacement caused by dramatic environmental changes. Their research has set a standard for the field study of evolution, exerting a far-reaching influence on the study of evolution of other organisms.

In addition, the achievements by the Grants have helped to promote an accurate understanding of evolutionary phenomena among the general public. Their work has also suggested the significance of evolutionary biology in coping with the on-going environmental changes. Their contributions to evolutionary biology as a science certainly deserve the highest recognition.

For these reasons, the Inamori Foundation is pleased to present the 2009 Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences to Dr. Peter Raymond Grant and Dr. Barbara Rosemary Grant.

Profile

Biography
1936
Born in Arnside, U.K.
1960
B.Sc. with Honor, The University of Edinburgh
1985
Ph.D. (Evolutionary Biology), Uppsala University
1960
Research Associate, The University of British Columbia
1964
Research Associate, Yale University
1973
Research Associate, McGill University
1977
Research Associate, University of Michigan
1985
Research Scholar and Lecturer, Princeton University
1997
Senior Research Scholar with rank of Professor, Princeton University
2008
Senior Research Scholar with rank of Professor Emeritus, Princeton University
Selected Awards and Honors
1998
E. O. Wilson Naturalist Award, The American Society of Naturalists
2002
Darwin Medal, The Royal Society of London
2005
Balzan Prize in Population Biology, International Balzan Prize Foundation
2008
The Darwin-Wallace Medal, The Linnean Society of London
Member
The Royal Society of London, National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Royal Society of Canada
Selected Publications
1976
Darwin's finches: Population variation and natural selection (Grant, P. R., Grant, B. R., Smith, J. N. M., Abbott, I. J. and Abbott, L. K.). Proceeding National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. 73: 257-261, 1976.
1979
Darwin's finches: Population variation and sympatric speciation (Grant, B. R. and Grant, P. R.). Proceeding National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. 76: 2359-2363, 1979.
1989
Evolutionary Dynamics of a Natural Population: The Large Cactus Finch of the Galápagos (Grant, B. R. and Grant , P. R.). University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 350 pp, 1989.
2002
Unpredictable evolution in a 30-year study of Darwin's finches (Grant, P. R. and Grant, B. R.). Science 296: 707-711, 2002.
2006
Evolution of character displacement in Darwin's finches (Grant, P. R. and Grant, B. R.). Science 313: 224-226, 2006.
2008
How and Why Species Multiply: The Radiation of Darwin's Finches (Grant, P. R. and Grant, B. R.). Princeton University Press, Princeton, 272 pp, 2008.

Profile is at the time of the award.

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