Herman Frederik Nijhout (born November 25, 1947) is a Dutch-born American evolutionary biologist and the John Franklin Crowell Professor of Biology at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist Jame ...

. His research is focused on evolutionary developmental biology and

entomology Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arac ...

, with a particular focus on the hormonal control of growth, molting and metamorphosis in

insects Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of ...

, including the mechanisms that control the development of alternative phenotypes. Much of his work has also been concerned with understanding the development and evolution of the wing patterns of

butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises ...

. He received the ESA Founders' Memorial Award from the

Entomological Society of America The Entomological Society of America (ESA) was founded in 1889 and today has more than 7,000 members, including educators, extension personnel, consultants, students, researchers, and scientists from agricultural departments, health agencies, ...

in 2006. In 2015, he was awarded the A.O. Kowalevsky Medal, and in 2018, he was elected a fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

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with WUNC * Living people Dutch biologists Dutch emigrants to the United States Evolutionary biologists Developmental biologists Dutch entomologists Duke University faculty Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1947 births University of Notre Dame alumni Harvard University alumni {{Netherlands-scientist-stub