Marcus William Feldman (born 14 November 1942) is the Burnet C. and Mildred Finley Wohlford Professor of Biological Sciences, director of the Morrison Institute for Population and Resource Studies, and co-director of the Center for Computational, Evolutionary and Human Genomics (CEHG) at Stanford University.[4] He is an Australian-born mathematician turned American theoretical biologist, best known for his mathematical evolutionary theory and computational studies in evolutionary biology,[5][6] and for originating with L. L. Cavalli-Sforza the theory of cultural evolution.

Marcus Feldman
Born
Marcus William Feldman

(1942-11-14) 14 November 1942 (age 82)
Perth, Australia
NationalityAustralian
CitizenshipAmerican (naturalised 1994)
Alma mater
AwardsMember of the National Academy of Sciences
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
ThesisSome Topics in Theoretical Population Genetics (1969)
Doctoral advisor
Doctoral students
Website

Early life and education

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Marcus Feldman was born and raised in Perth, Australia. His father Simon Feldman was an engineer, and this inspired him to take up mathematics. He studied at the University of Western Australia from where he matriculated in 1959, and graduated (with majors in mathematics and statistics) in 1964. In 1966 he obtained Master of Science degree in mathematics from Monash University. He went abroad to US to join a PhD programme at Stanford University. He earned his degree in 1969 under the supervision of Samuel Karlin in the Department of Mathematics. Karlin influenced him to pursue his research in population genetics using his computational know-how.[7]

Professional career

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After a brief work at Stanford as a research assistant for Karlin, and as acting assistant professor in the Department of Biology, Feldman returned to Australia to join at La Trobe University as a lecturer of mathematics. In 1971 he was appointed as assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford, and went back to US. With L.L. Cavalli-Sforza in 1973, he originated the quantitative theory of cultural evolution, initiating a research program in cultural transmission and gene-culture coevolution. His own research into human molecular evolution such as in China led him to international recognition. He is the author of more than 625 scientific papers and several books on evolution, ecology, and mathematical biology.

In addition, he is the founding editor of Theoretical Population Biology (1971–2013) and an associate editor of Genetics, Human Genetics, Annals of Human Genetics, Annals of Human Biology, and Complexity. He was the editor of The American Naturalist from 1984 to 1990. He was a member of the board of trustees at the Santa Fe Institute from 1984 to 2006.[8]

Award and honors

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Doctoral Advisor Genealogy of Marc Feldman". dynamics.org.
  2. ^ a b Marcus Feldman at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  3. ^ "Doctoral Advisor Genealogy of Marc Feldman".
  4. ^ "Marcus W. Feldman, MS, PhD". fsi.stanford.edu. Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
  5. ^ Marcus Feldman's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  6. ^ Rosenberg, N. A.; Pritchard, J. K.; Weber, J. L.; Cann, H. M.; Kidd, K. K.; Zhivotovsky, L. A.; Feldman, M. W. (2002). "Genetic Structure of Human Populations" (PDF). Science. 298 (5602): 2381–2385. Bibcode:2002Sci...298.2381R. doi:10.1126/science.1078311. PMID 12493913. S2CID 8127224.
  7. ^ "Marc Feldman". santafe.edu. Santa Fe Institute. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  8. ^ "Vita: MARCUS WILLIAM FELDMAN" (PDF). www-evo.stanford.edu. Department of Biology, Stanford University. 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 June 2020. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  9. ^ "Dan David Prize Laureates 2011". Archived from the original on 2013-09-03. Retrieved 2021-12-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)