Joe Thornton, PhD, receives Friend of Darwin Award for contributions to evolution education

Joe Thornton, PhD, professor of ecology and evolution and human genetics at the University of Chicago, has been awarded a synthesized and introduced into living organisms to study their function and create libraries of genetic variants of these proteins to replay all the possible paths of evolution under different scenarios.

"I am very grateful for this award from NCSE, which does such crucially important work to further science education and public understanding of evolution," Thornton said. "It means a great deal to me that NCSE thinks my laboratory’s work has been useful in beating back the forces of deliberate ignorance in our society."