Walter M. FitchDied 11 Mar 2011 at age 81 (born 21 May 1929). American evolutionary biologist who was a professor of molecular evolution at the University of California. He pioneered in the reconstruction of evolutionary trees (phylogenetic trees) from protein and DNA sequences. He co-authored “Construction of phylogenetic trees” which was published in Science (1967). He was the first president of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution and the founding editor-in-chief of its journal Molecular Biology and Evolution. As a long-time member of the National Center for Science Education, he staunchly promoted the teaching of evolution, and vigorously debated the fallacies of Creationism. At the time of his death, he was finishing a book on the creationism/evolution controversy.« |
