George Edward Fox (born December 17, 1945) is an astrobiologist, a Professor Emeritus and researcher at the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...

. He is an elected fellow of the

American Academy of Microbiology The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It wa ...

, the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) is a non-profit organization founded in 1991, and headquartered in Washington. It represents 50,000 medical and biomedical engineers, and academic institutions, private industry, ...

and the International Astrobiology Society. Fox received his

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree in 1967, and completed his Ph.D. degree in 1974; both in

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials in ...

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

. From the Fall of 1973 until 1977, Fox was a research associate with Carl R. Woese at the University of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign. Their collaboration initially focused on 5S ribosomal RNA where they established the use of a comparative sequence approach to predict RNA secondary structure. Next, utilizing

16S ribosomal RNA 16 S ribosomal RNA (or 16 S rRNA) is the RNA component of the 30S subunit of a prokaryotic ribosome ( SSU rRNA). It binds to the Shine-Dalgarno sequence and provides most of the SSU structure. The genes coding for it are referred to as 16S rR ...

finger printing technology developed in the Woese laboratory in large part by Mitchell Sogin, Fox and Woese discovered the third form of life now known as the

Archaea Archaea ( ; singular archaeon ) is a domain of single-celled organisms. These microorganisms lack cell nuclei and are therefore prokaryotes. Archaea were initially classified as bacteria, receiving the name archaebacteria (in the Archaeba ...

. It has been said that their 1977 paper “may be the most important paper ever in microbiology”. This seminal paper is now considered to be a PNAS classic. Fox and Woese also introduced the idea of a progenote as a primordial entity in the evolution of life. In the Fall of 1977, Fox moved on to the

and as a new Assistant Professor in Biochemical & Biophysical Sciences, continued to collaborate with Woese. This resulted in the 1980 publication of the “big tree”, the first comprehensive tree of bacterial relationships. Fox also recognized the limitations that 16S rRNA sequences could provide when identifying closely related species and addressed the question of “How Close is Close?". He became a full professor there in 1986. His current research centers around understanding the early

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

of life with particular interest in the origin and evolution of the ribosome. He has also assisted NASA scientists on multiple occasions in characterizing relevant microbial communities.

Books describing discovery of Archaea

1. Quammen , D.(2018).“The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life.” Simon & Schuster . 2. Sapp, J. (2009).“The New Foundations of Evolution,” Oxford University Press,.

References

External links

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Google Scholar Profile

Google Scholar

at the University of Houston, Houston, Texas

BBC News

The Space Show Broadcast

Fellow in the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life (ISSOL)

Four Pioneering Scientists to Discuss “The Origins of the RNA World”

The Library of Congress Astrobiology Chair Nathaniel Comfort Discusses the RNA World with Pioneering Scientists

Most important paper ever in microbiology? Woese & Fox, 1977, Discovery of Archaea

Details of Ribosome Structure, Function and History Aaron Gronstal, 2020, NASA Astrobiology Exobiology Program, Center for the Origin of Life (COOL) {{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, George E. 1945 births Living people Syracuse University alumni Astrobiologists

See also

Books describing discovery of Archaea

References

External links