Dr. Matthew Fujita
Presented to The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries on the occasion of Promotion to Associate Professor, Dr. Matthew Fujita, Biology, Fall 2018.
Item(s) added to the Libraries' collection:
Genetics and the origin of species.
Dobzhansky, T. (1951). Genetics and the origin of species. (3d ed., rev.). New York: Columbia University Press.
Dobzhansky famously wrote that “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution” in an essay 1973, and this perspective is pervasive in a significant component of modern day biological research. However, Dobzhansky’s influence dates back earlier, and this book, whose first edition was published in 1937, was the spark of what we call the Modern Synthesis in biology. Genetics and the Origin of Species merged together genetics theory, experimentation, and natural history as an integrative approach to understanding life. While we now have the genomics tools to investigate the biological world around us, something that Dobzhansky did not have, he nevertheless laid the framework for how my lab thinks about our research. Dobzhansky's most famous and influential work was performed using the fruit fly model organism, but it was his deep appreciation and fascination with natural history that ignited the innovative integration that would become biology's Modern Synthesis.