Joseph "Joe" Felsenstein (born May 9, 1942) is a Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Genome Sciences and

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. He is best known for his work on

phylogenetic inference Computational phylogenetics is the application of computational algorithms, methods, and programs to phylogenetic

, and is the author of ''Inferring Phylogenies'', and principal author and distributor of the package of phylogenetic inference programs called

PHYLIP PHYLogeny Inference Package (PHYLIP) is a free computational phylogenetics package of programs for inferring evolutionary trees (phylogenies). It consists of 65 portable programs, i.e., the source code is written in the programming language C. As ...

. Closely related to his work on phylogenetic inference is his introduction of methods for making statistically independent comparisons using phylogenies.

Education

Felsenstein did his undergraduate work at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

where he did undergraduate research under

James F. Crow James Franklin Crow (January 18, 1916 – January 4, 2012) was Professor Emeritus of Genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a prominent population geneticist whose career spanned from the modern synthesis to the genomic era. Some o ...

. He then did doctoral work under

Richard Lewontin Richard Charles Lewontin (March 29, 1929 – July 4, 2021) was an American evolutionary biologist, mathematician, geneticist, and social commentator. A leader in developing the mathematical basis of population genetics and evolutionary theory, h ...

in the 1960s, when he was at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, and did a

postdoc A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to p ...

at the Institute of Animal Genetics in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

prior to becoming faculty at the

Research

In addition to his work in

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

s, Felsenstein is also noted for his work in theoretical

population genetics Population genetics is a subfield of genetics that deals with genetic differences within and between populations, and is a part of evolutionary biology. Studies in this branch of biology examine such phenomena as adaptation, speciation, and pop ...

, including studies on selection, migration, linkage, speciation, and the

coalescent ''Coalescent'' is a science-fiction novel by Stephen Baxter. It is part one of the ''Destiny's Children'' series. The story is set in two main time periods: modern Britain, when George Poole finds that he has a previously unknown sister and f ...

Awards

Felsenstein is a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

. He was awarded the Darwin-Wallace Medal by the

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

in 2008. In 2009 he was awarded the John J. Carty Award from the National Academy of Sciences. In 2013 he was awarded the

International Prize for Biology The is an annual award for "outstanding contribution to the advancement of research in fundamental biology." The Prize, although it is not always awarded to a biologist, is one of the most prestigious honours a natural scientist can receive. Ther ...

by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. The moth species ''

Ufeus felsensteini ''Ufeus felsensteini'' is a moth in the family Noctuidae. It is only known from the Santa Catalina Mountains in south-eastern Arizona., 2013: A revision of the genus Ufeus Grote with the description of a new species from Arizona (Lepidoptera, No ...

'' was named in his honor.

Personal life

Felsenstein is the older brother of early personal computer designer

Lee Felsenstein Lee Felsenstein (born April 27, 1945) is an American computer engineer who played a central role in the development of the personal computer. He was one of the original members of the Homebrew Computer Club and the designer of the Osborne 1, the ...

.Early History of the Personal Computer
/ref> An interview covering aspects of his academic career is part of the Distinguished Faculty Interview Series of the Department of Genome Sciences,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Felsenstein, Joseph Living people University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Population geneticists Evolutionary biologists Computational phylogenetics 1942 births University of Washington faculty Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Phylogenetics researchers