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Francisco J. Ayala
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Francisco Jose Ayala (born 1934) is a Spanish American biologist and philosopher at the University of California, Irvine. He was born in Madrid and moved to the US in 1961 to study at Columbia University. There, he studied for his doctorate under Theodosius Dobzhansky, graduating in 1964. He became a US citizen in 1971.
He has been President and Chairman of the Board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
At University of California, Irvine, his academic appointments include University Professor and Donald Bren Professor of Biological Sciences, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (School of Biological Sciences), Professor of Philosophy, (School of Humanities), and Professor of Logic and the Philosophy of Science (School of Social Sciences).
He has been publicly critical of U.S. restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. He currently serves on the advisory board of the Campaign to Defend the Constitution, an organization that has lobbied Congress to lift federal restrictions on funding embryonic stem cell research.
2001 National Medal of Science. Member: National Academy of Sciences; American Academy of Arts & Sciences; American Philosophical Society. Foreign Member: Russian Academy of Sciences, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome; Royal Academy of Sciences, Spain; Mexican Academy of Sciences; Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences. Received: Gold Honorary Gregor Mendel Medal, Czech Academy of Sciences; Gold Medal of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei; Gold Medal of the Stazione Zoologica, Naples; President's Award of the American Institute of Biological Sciences; Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award and 150th Anniversary Leadership Medal, AAAS; Medal of the College of France; UCI Medal, University of California; 1998 Distinguished Scientist Award, SACNAS; and Sigma Xi's William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement, 2000. Honorary Degrees: Universities of Athens (Greece); Bologna (Italy), Barcelona, Las Islas Baleares, Leon, Madrid, Valencia, and Vigo (Spain); Vladivostok (“Far East National University”, Russia); and Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic).
In 2003 he was elected as a member of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in the Department of Chemical and Biological Sciences.
- Le ragioni dell'evoluzione, Di Renzo Editore, Roma, 2005
| Preceded by Eloise E. Clark |
President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 1995 |
Succeeded by Rita R. Colwell |