Walter M. Fitch
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Walter Monroe Fitch | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 21, 1929 San Diego, California, U.S. |
| Died | March 10, 2011 (aged 81) Irvine, California, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | University of California, Berkeley |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of Wisconsin–Madison University of Southern California University of California, Irvine |
| Doctoral advisor | Israel Lyon Chaikoff |
Walter Monroe Fitch (May 21, 1929 – March 10, 2011) was a pioneering American researcher in molecular evolution.[1]
Education and career
Fitch attended
National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society,[2] and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was a Foreign Member of the London Linnean Society. He co-founded the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, with Masatoshi Nei, and was the first president of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.[3]
Research
Fitch is noted for his pioneering work on reconstruction of
maximum parsimony algorithm, which evaluates rapidly and exactly the minimum number of changes of state of a sequence on a given phylogeny. His definition of orthologous sequences
has been frequently cited and is used as a reference in many research publications.
Selected publications
- Fitch, W. M. and E. Margoliash. (1967). Construction of phylogenetic trees. Science 155: 279–284.
- Fitch, W. M. (1970). Distinguishing homologous from analogous proteins. Systematic Biology 19 (2): 99-113.
- Fitch, W. M. (1971). Toward defining the course of evolution: minimum change for a specified tree topology. Systematic Zoology20 (4): 406-416
- Fitch, W. M. (2012). The Three Failures of Creationism: Logic, Rhetoric, and Science. University of California Press.
References
- S2CID 39275648.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2021-07-13.
- ^ "Walter Monroe Fitch". senate.universityofcalifornia.edu. Retrieved 2022-09-11.
External links
- Obituary at the National Center for Science Education
- Retrospective in Science
- Francisco J. Ayala, "Walter Monroe Fitch", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2011)
- My memory of Walter Fitch and starting Molecular Biology and Evolution
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