Martin Nowak

Martin Nowak is director of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard University.

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Career

Martin Nowak studied biochemistry and mathematics at the University of Vienna, where he received his Ph. D. in 1989. His diploma thesis was with Peter Schuster on quasi-species theory and his Ph.D. thesis with Karl Sigmund on evolution of cooperation. In 1989, he went to the University of Oxford as 'Erwin Schrödinger' scholar to work with Robert May. In 1992, Nowak became a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow, in 1995 he became Head of Mathematical Biology and in 1997 Professor of Mathematical Biology. In 1998 he moved from Oxford to Princeton to establish the first program in Theoretical Biology at the Institute for Advanced Study. In July 2003, Nowak moved to Harvard University as Professor of Mathematics and Biology. He is Director of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics.

Nowak is interested in all aspects of mathematical biology. In particular, he works on the dynamics of infectious diseases, cancer genetics, the evolution of cooperation and human language. He has published more than 250 papers and is on the editorial board of various journals. His first book, 'Virus Dynamics' (together 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^[1] and the Henry Dale Prize. His 2006 book Evolutionary Dynamics: Exploring the Equations of Life^[2] was published in 2006 to critical acclaim^[3] and won the Association of American Publishers R.R. Hawkins Award for the Outstanding Professional, Reference or Scholarly Work of 2006^[4].

He is co-director, with Sarah Coakley of the Evolution and Theology of Cooperation research programme at Harvard University, sponsored by the Templeton Foundation ^[5] He is also a member of the Board of Advisers of the Templeton Foundation ^[6]. In a lecture given at Harvard in March 2007 called "Evolution and Christianity" he argues that "Science and religion are two essential components in the search for truth. Denying either is a barren approach."^[7]

He has over 250 scientific publications, of which 37 are in Nature and 24 in Science.[2]

Research Interests

His current research interests include:

• Somatic evolution of cancer, genetic instability, tumor suppressor genes;
• Stem cells, tissue architecture;
• Viruses, infectious diseases, immunology;
• Quasispecies;
• Genetic redundancy;
• Evolution of language;
• Evolutionary game theory; and
• Evolution of cooperation and fairness.

In 1990 he proposed, with Robert May a mathematical model which explained the puzzling long 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.^[8] This detailed quantitative approach depended on assumptions about the biology of HIV which were subsequently confirmed by experiment^[9].

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) He 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^[10].

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.^[11]

Career

Education

• 1975-1983 Albertus Magnus Gymnasium in Vienna
• 1983-1989 University of Vienna, studying Biochemistry and Mathematics
• 1985 First Diploma: Biochemistry (with highest honors)
• 1987 Diploma thesis: Theoretical Chemistry Second Diploma: Biochemistry (with highest honors)
• 1987-1989 Doctoral thesis: Mathematics
• 1989 Doctor rerum naturalium (sub auspiciis praesidentis)

Vienna

• 1987-1988 Institute for Theoretical Chemistry, Professor Peter Schuster
• 1987-1989 Institute for Mathematics, Professor Karl Sigmund
• Sept-Nov 1988 Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany, Professor Manfred Eigen
• 1993 "Habilitation" at the Institute of Mathematics, University of Vienna (Universitäts Dozent)

Oxford

• 1989-1990 Erwin Schrödinger Scholarship to work with Professor Sir Robert May
• 1990-1992 Guy Newton Junior Research Fellow, Wolfson College
• 1992-1998 Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in Biomedical Sciences
• 1993-1996 E. P. Abraham Junior Research Fellow, Keble College
• 1995-1998 Head of Mathematical Biology Group
• 1996-1998 Senior Research Fellow, Keble College
• 1997-1998 Professor of Mathematical Biology

Princeton

1998-2003 Head, Program in Theoretical Biology Institute for Advanced Study. From 1999-2003 he was Associated Faculty, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and from 2000-2003 also Associated Faculty, Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics

Harvard

2003- Professor of Mathematics and Biology and Director, Program for Evolutionary Dynamics

Prizes, named lectures and memberships

• 1990 Prize from the Austrian Science Minister
• 1990 Promotion sub auspiciis praesidentis rei publicae
• 1995 Richardson Lecture, Keble College, Oxford
• 1996 Weldon Memorial Prize
• 1997 Shanks Lecture, Vanderbilt University
• 1998 Albert Wander Prize and Memorial Lecture, University of Bern
• 1999 Roger F. Murray Prize, Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance
• 1999 Akira Okubo Prize, International and Japanese Society for Mathematical Biology
• 1999 Erwin Schrödinger Lecture, University of Vienna
• 1999 Porter Lecture, Rice University
• 2000 Gergen Lecture, Duke University
• 2001 David Starr Jordan Prize, Stanford University, Cornell University, Indiana University
• 2001 Rainich Lectures, University of Michigan
• 2001 Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
• 2001 Benjamin Pinkel Lecture, University of Pennsylvania
• 2003 Henry Dale Prize, The Royal Institution, London
• 2007 Association of American Publishers R.R. Hawkins Award for the Outstanding Professional, Reference or Scholarly Work of 2006

References and sources

1. ^ David Starr Jordan Prize recipients
2. ^ Nowak, Martin (October 2006), , Belknap Press, ISBN 0674023382
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Harvard release on RR Hawkins Award
5. ^ http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~etc/index.html
6. ^ [1]
7. ^ Harvard summarysee also RealPlayer version
8. ^ M.A. Nowak, R.M. May and R.M. Anderson (1990). "The evolutionary dynamics of HIV-1 quasispecies and the development of immunodeficiency disease". AIDS 4 (11): 95–103. PMID 2282182.
9. ^ See Evolutionary Dynamics p171, etc.
10. ^ Nowak, M. (2006) Five Rules for the Evolution of Cooperation. Science 314, 1560
11. ^ Lieberman, Michel,Jackson, Tang & Nowak (2007) Quantifying the evolutionary dynamics of language Nature 449 713-716