Michael Earl Conrad (1941–2000) was an American theoretical biologist. He was a professor of computer science at

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...

. His book ''Adaptability'' (1983) has been very influential in

theoretical biology Mathematical and theoretical biology, or biomathematics, is a branch of biology which employs theoretical analysis, mathematical models and abstractions of the living organisms to investigate the principles that govern the structure, development a ...

. Conrad was the first to publish theory on the evolution of

evolvability Evolvability is defined as the capacity of a system for adaptive evolution. Evolvability is the ability of a population of organisms to not merely generate genetic diversity, but to generate ''adaptive'' genetic diversity, and thereby evolve throu ...

, beginning in 1972, with the idea that mutations which smoothed the

adaptive landscape Adaptation, in biology, is the process or trait by which organisms or population better match their environment Adaptation may also refer to: Arts * Adaptation (arts), a transfer of a work of art from one medium to another ** Film adaptation, a ...

would increase the chance that other adaptive mutations could be continually produced, and would thereby hitchhike along with those mutations, thus "bootstrapping the adaptive landscape" to produce the "self-facilitation of evolution".

Career

Conrad received his A.B. in Biology at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1964. He entered Stanford University Medical School but was persuaded by faculty there to pursue a Ph.D. in Biophysics with Professor Howard H. Pattee, which he obtained in 1969. Conrad continued with postdoctoral research at the Center for Theoretical Studies at the University of Miami, and the Department of Mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley working with Hans Bremermann. Not finding theoretical biology positions in the United States, Conrad took an Assistant Professorship at the new Institute for Information Processing at the University of Tubingen in 1973, and a temporary position with the Logic of Computers group in the Department of Computer Science and Communication at the

University of Michigan at Ann Arbor , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. Conrad finally obtained a tenure-track position in the Computer Science department of

in 1979, where he remained for the rest of his career.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Conrad, Michael Theoretical biologists 1941 births 2000 deaths Harvard College alumni Stanford University alumni Wayne State University faculty