Martin Nowak

Martin Nowak

Dr. Martin Nowak at PED, Harvard, 2014
Born

April 7, 1965 (1965-04-07) (age 51)

[1]
Vienna, Austria
Residence United States
Nationality Austrian
Fields Mathematical Biology
Institutions Harvard University
Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry
University of Oxford
Princeton University
Institute for Advanced Study
Alma mater University of Vienna
Doctoral advisor Karl Sigmund
Other academic advisors Robert May
Doctoral students Robert Payne, Sebastian Bonhoeffer, Marc Lipsitch, Dov Stekel, Dov Stekel, Ramy Arnaout, Ruy Ribeiro, Barbara Bittner, Joshua Plotkin, William Mitchener, Erick Matsen, Martin Willensdorfer, Katherine Paur, Corina Tarnita, David G. Rand, Anna Dreber Almenberg, Feng Fu, Erez Lieberman Aiden, Michael Manapat, Jean-Baptiste Michel
Known for Evolution of cooperation, Virus dynamics, Evolutionary dynamics, Spatial games, Language evolution, Cancer dynamics
Notable awards Weldon Memorial Prize
Albert Wander Prize

Martin Andreas Nowak (born April 7, 1965) is the Professor of Biology and Mathematics and Director of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard University.

Career

Martin Nowak studied biochemistry and mathematics at the University of Vienna, and earned his Ph. D. in 1989, working with Peter Schuster on quasi-species theory and with Karl Sigmund on evolution of cooperation. In 1989, he moved to Oxford as an Erwin Schrödinger Scholar to work with Robert May, becoming Head of Mathematical Biology in 1995 and Professor of Mathematical Biology in 1997. In 1998 he moved to the IAS at Princeton to establish the first program in Theoretical Biology there. In 2003, Nowak was recruited to Harvard University as Professor of Mathematics and Biology.[2] He is Director of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics[3] which was funded with a $30 million pledge by Jeffrey Epstein and his foundation, the Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation,[4] a friend of Nowak who had supported his work in the past.[5][6]

Nowak works on the dynamics of infectious diseases, cancer genetics, the evolution of cooperation and human language. His first book, Virus Dynamics (written with Robert May) was published by Oxford University Press, 2000. Nowak is a corresponding member of the Austrian academy of sciences. He won the Weldon Memorial Prize, the Albert Wander Prize, the Akira Okubo Prize, the David Starr Jordan Prize[7] and the Henry Dale Prize. His 2006 book Evolutionary Dynamics: Exploring the Equations of Life[8] was published in 2006 to critical acclaim[9] and won the Association of American Publishers R.R. Hawkins Award for the Outstanding Professional, Reference or Scholarly Work of 2006.[10]

Nowak was co-director with Sarah Coakley of the Evolution and Theology of Cooperation project at Harvard University, sponsored by the Templeton Foundation.[11] He is also a member of the Board of Advisers of the Templeton Foundation.[12] In a lecture given at Harvard in March 2007 called "Evolution and Christianity", Nowak, a Roman Catholic,[13] argued that "Science and religion are two essential components in the search for truth. Denying either is a barren approach."[14]

He has over 300 scientific publications, of which 40 are in Nature and 15 in Science.[15]

In 2010 a paper by Nowak, EO Wilson, and Corina Tarnita, in Nature, argued that standard natural selection theory represents a simpler and superior approach to kin selection theory in the evolution of eusociality.[16] This work has led to many comments including strong criticism from the proponents of inclusive fitness theory.[17][18][19][20] Nowak maintains that the findings of the paper are conclusive and that the field of social evolution should move beyond the limitations imposed by inclusive fitness theory.[21][22]

Supercooperators

In 2011 his book Supercooperators: The Mathematics of Evolution, Altruism and Human Behaviour (Or, Why We Need Each Other to Succeed) was published, co-authored with Roger Highfield.

Manfred Milinski in Nature describes the book as "part autobiography, part textbook, and reads like a best-selling novel" and suggests that whereas Nowak is right that the theories of kin selection and punishment need revisiting, it is too soon to tell whether his bold ideas will hold up to empirical testing. On the Nowak/Tarnita/Wilson paper Milinski says: "I anticipate that a better mathematical formulation of social evolution theory will be found that includes relatedness, is compatible with existing evidence and includes Hamilton's rule as a rule of thumb."[23]

David Willetts, in the Financial Times, described the book as an "excellent example" of using the nexus of evolutionary biology, game theory and neuroscience to understand the development of cooperation in society, and suggests that "all politicians can draw inspiration and ideas from the intellectual resources of this exciting approach"[24]

Research interests

Nowak's current research interests include:

In 1990 Nowak and Robert May proposed a mathematical model which explained the puzzling delay between HIV infection and AIDS in terms of the evolution of different strains of the virus during individual infections, to the point where the genetic diversity of the virus reaches a threshold whereby the immune system can no longer control it.[25] This detailed quantitative approach depended on assumptions about the biology of HIV which were subsequently confirmed by experiment.[26]

In a paper in Science in 2006 Nowak enunciated and unified the mathematical rules for the five understood bases of the evolution of cooperation (kin selection, direct reciprocity, indirect reciprocity, network reciprocity, and group selection). Nowak suggests that evolution is constructive because of cooperation, and that we might add “natural cooperation” as a third fundamental principle of evolution beside mutation and natural selection.[27]

In a paper featured on the front cover of Nature Nowak and colleagues demonstrated that the transition of irregular verbs to regular verbs in English over time obeys a simple inverse-square law, thus providing one of the first quantitative laws in the evolution of language.[28]

Career

Education

Vienna

Oxford

Princeton

Harvard

Prizes, named lectures and memberships

Editorial work

Notes

  1. ↑ The Boston Globe October 15, 2007
  2. ↑ Bio-details used with thanks from the PED website
  3. ↑ http://www.ped.fas.harvard.edu
  4. ↑ Financier pledges $30 million to support Harvard researcher, The Associated Press, 7 February 2003
  5. ↑ Landon Thomas Jr. (2002-10-28). "Jeffrey Epstein: International Money Man of Mystery". New York Magazine.
  6. ↑ http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=514187
  7. ↑ David Starr Jordan Prize recipients
  8. ↑ Nowak, Martin (October 2006). "Evolutionary Dynamics: Exploring the Equations of Life". Belknap Press. ISBN 0-674-02338-2.
  9. ↑ e.g. in Nature "It should be on the shelf of anyone who has, or thinks they might have, an interest in theoretical biology" " wonderfully well-presented, and offers a new range of insights into interesting and important and emerging topics in mathematical biology." Robert May. ""rigor and new ideas into the study of the evolution of language and cooperation...brimming with insights and surprising findings and should be of interest to anyone who is curious about these topics" Steven Pinker "A brilliant book by a master of his field" Robert Trivers "a remarkable book, absolutely original, containing a lot of material which has never before appeared in book form. It is written in a very accessible style, and leads almost effortlessly from first principles to state-of-the-art research. The book takes an eagle's view on evolution, covering a vast range of topics from molecules to man. It emphasises analytical methods and presents a large canvas of superbly elegant mathematical models." Karl Sigmund
  10. ↑ Harvard release on RR Hawkins Award
  11. ↑ Evolution and Theology of Cooperation
  12. ↑ About Us : Who We Are : Board of Advisors
  13. ↑ http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/stories/2011/3224124.htm
  14. ↑ http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/03/can-science-religion-coexist-in-peace
  15. ↑ http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~ped/people/faculty/all_publications.html
  16. ↑ Nowak, M. A.; Tarnita, C. E.; Wilson, E. O. (2010). "The evolution of eusociality". Nature. 466 (7310): 1057–1062. doi:10.1038/nature09205. PMC 3279739Freely accessible. PMID 20740005.
  17. ↑ Krakauer, D. C.; Flack, J. C. (2010). "Better living through physics". Nature. 467 (7316): 661. doi:10.1038/467661a.
  18. ↑ Gadagkar R (2010) Sociobiology in turmoil again. Current Science, 99:1036-1041
  19. ↑ Rousset, F.; Lion, S. (2011). "Much ado about nothing: Nowak et al.'s charge against inclusive fitness theory". Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 24 (6): 1386–1392. doi:10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02251.x. PMID 21457170.
  20. ↑ Abbot, P.; Abe, J.; Alcock, J.; Alizon, S.; Alpedrinha, J. A. C.; Andersson, M.; Andre, J. B.; Van Baalen, M.; Balloux, F.; Balshine, S.; Barton, N.; Beukeboom, L. W.; Biernaskie, J. M.; Bilde, T.; Borgia, G.; Breed, M.; Brown, S.; Bshary, R.; Buckling, A.; Burley, N. T.; Burton-Chellew, M. N.; Cant, M. A.; Chapuisat, M.; Charnov, E. L.; Clutton-Brock, T.; Cockburn, A.; Cole, B. J.; Colegrave, N.; Cosmides, L.; Couzin, I. D. (2011). "Inclusive fitness theory and eusociality". Nature. 471 (7339): E1–E4. doi:10.1038/nature09831. PMID 21430721.
  21. ↑ Nowak, M. A.; Tarnita, C. E.; Wilson, E. O. (2011). "Nowak et al. Reply". Nature. 471 (7339): E9. doi:10.1038/nature09836.
  22. ↑ http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~ped/IF_Statement.pdf
  23. ↑ Milinski, M. (2011). "Biology: A revolution in evolution". Nature. 471 (7338): 294–295. doi:10.1038/471294b.
  24. ↑ The invisible hand that binds us all by David Willetts FT 24-Apr-2011
  25. ↑ Eigen, M.; Nieselt-Struwe, K. (1990). "How old is the immunodeficiency virus?". AIDS. 4: S95. doi:10.1097/00002030-199001001-00014. PMID 2152591.
  26. ↑ See Evolutionary Dynamics p171, etc.
  27. ↑ Nowak, M. A. (2006). "Five Rules for the Evolution of Cooperation". Science. 314 (5805): 1560–1563. Bibcode:2006Sci...314.1560N. doi:10.1126/science.1133755. PMC 3279745Freely accessible. PMID 17158317.
  28. ↑ Lieberman, E.; Michel, J. B.; Jackson, J.; Tang, T.; Nowak, M. A. (2007). "Quantifying the evolutionary dynamics of language". Nature. 449 (7163): 713–716. doi:10.1038/nature06137. PMC 2460562Freely accessible. PMID 17928859.
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