"DNA is the genetic blueprint of all creatures — it contains the operating instructions for everyday life and for making the next generation. Very recently, an important new dimension of DNA has been revealed — it contains a vast and detailed record of how species adapt and change. That is, DNA is a living chronicle of Evolution. We can now pinpoint the precise changes in DNA that have enabled the marvelous creatures that inhabit our planet to adapt to its many shifting and sometimes extreme environments, from the freezing waters of the Antarctic to the lush canopy of the rain forest. We finally understand not just how the fittest survive, but how they are made."
Sean Carroll is Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics and an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Wisconsin. His research has centered on the genes that control animal body patterns and play major roles in the evolution of animal diversity. Major discoveries from his laboratory have been featured in TIME, US News & World Report, The New York Times, Discover, and Natural History.
Sean is the author of The Making of the Fittest (2006, W.W. Norton) and of Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo (2005, W.W. Norton). He is also co-author with Jen Grenier and Scott Weatherbee of the textbook From DNA to Diversity: Molecular Genetics and the Evolution of Animal Design (2nd ed, 2005; Blackwell Scientific) and with Anthony Griffiths, Richard Lewontin, and Susan Wessler of the textbook Introduction to Genetic Analysis (9e, 2007, W.H. Freeman and Co.). He is also the author or co-author of more than 100 scientific papers.
Sean is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (elected 2007) and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has received the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, the Shaw Scientist Award of the Milwaukee Foundation, and numerous honorary lectureships. Sean was named one of America's most promising leaders under 40 by TIME Magazine in 1994.
He earned his B.A. in Biology at Washington University in St. Louis, his Ph.D. in Immunology at Tufts Medical School, and carried out his postdoctoral research with Dr. Matthew Scott at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
Sean lives in Madison, Wisconsin with his wife Jamie and two sons.
"Sean Carroll is our plain-spoken emissary from the next great revolution in biology. His earlier book, Endless Forms Most Beautiful, provides a fine introduction to the amazing field called Evo Devo."
– David Quammen, Author, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin and The Song of the Dodo