Jonathan Losos

Losos studied biology at Harvard University, from which he received a bachelor's degree in 1984. Later on, in 1989, he received a PhD in Zoology from the University of California, Berkeley (Ecomorphological Adaptation in the Genus Anolis). Starting in 1987, he worked as a teaching assistant in Berkeley. After receiving his PhD, he moved to the University of California, Davis in 1990 to become one of the inaugural postdoctoral fellows at the Center for Population Biology. Losos then, from 1992 on, was assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis, and then was promoted to the rank of associate professor in 1997 and professor in 2001.{{cite web |url=https://lososlab.oeb.harvard.edu/people/jonathan-losos |title=Jonathan Losos |website=Losos Laboratory |publisher=harvard.edu |accessdate=12 August 2020 |archive-date=21 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210921143109/https://lososlab.oeb.harvard.edu/people/jonathan-losos |url-status=dead }}

His work focuses on a wide range of topics, but he is best known for his studies of convergent evolution and adaptive radiation, and for experimental studies of evolution in nature.{{Cite web|last=Pennisi|first=Elizabeth|author-link=Elizabeth Pennisi |date=2020-07-30|title=Meet Lizard Man, a reptile-loving biologist tackling some of the biggest questions in evolution|url=https://www.science.org/content/article/meet-lizard-man-reptile-loving-biologist-tackling-some-biggest-questions-evolution|access-date=2021-06-17|website=Science {{!}} AAAS|language=en}} Most of his empirical work has involved the evolutionary radiation of lizards in the genus Anolis which occur in Central and South America and on islands in the Caribbean.

From 2000 to 2003 and 2004–2005, Losos was director of Tyson Research Center at Washington University in St. Louis. In 2006, Losos left Washington University to become the Monique and Philip Lehner Professor for the Study of Latin America at Harvard University and Professor in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, as well as Curator in Herpetology of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Losos then returned to Washington University in St. Louis College of Arts and Sciences in 2018 to become the William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Biology, as well as the founding director of the Living Earth Collaborative,{{Cite web |date=2017-08-31 |title=Leadership |url=https://livingearthcollaborative.wustl.edu/people-page/people-page-page/ |access-date=2025-02-25 |website=Living Earth Collaborative |language=en-US}} a biodiversity partnership between Washington University in St. Louis, the Missouri Botanical Garden and the Saint Louis Zoo.{{Cite news|url=https://source.wustl.edu/2018/04/sustaining-life/|title=Sustaining life on Earth {{!}} The Source {{!}} Washington University in St. Louis|date=2018-04-06|work=The Source|access-date=2018-11-17|language=en-US}}

Losos has received a number of awards, including the [http://www.evolutionsociety.org/content/society-awards-and-prizes/the-theodosius-dobzhansky-prize.html Dobzhansky Prize] in 1991, the [http://www.indiana.edu/~dsjprize/ David Starr Jordan Prize] in 1998, the [https://www.amnat.org/awards.html#Wilson Edward O. Wilson Naturalist Award] in 2009, the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal in 2012, the [https://www.amnat.org/awards.html#Wright Sewall Wright Award] in 2019,{{Cite web|url=https://www.amnat.org/announcements/ANNWrightaward.html|title=Sewall Wright Award 2019|website=www.amnat.org|access-date=2019-04-23}} and the [https://ncse.ngo/friend-darwin-awards Friend of Darwin Award] in 2024.{{Cite web |title=Friend of Darwin and Friend of the Planet awards for 2024 {{!}} National Center for Science Education |url=https://ncse.ngo/friend-darwin-and-friend-planet-awards-2024 |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=ncse.ngo |language=en}}

Losos is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2005) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2012) and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2018) and the [https://www.amphilsoc.org/ American Philosophical Society] (2024). In 2016, he received the Distinguished Herpetologist award of The [https://herpetologistsleague.org/ Herpetologists' League].

• {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SakwDwAAQBAJ |title=Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree: Ecology and Adaptive Radiation of Anoles |publisher=University of California Press |year=2011 |isbn=9780520269842}}{{cite journal|author=Rodríguez-Robles, Javier A.|title=Review of Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree by Jonathan B. Losos|date=Summer 2010|journal=ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America|url=https://archive.revista.drclas.harvard.edu/book/lessons-lizards}}
• {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n3djDwAAQBAJ |title=Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution |publisher=Penguin |year=2018 |isbn=9780525534136}}{{cite journal | last=Albert | first=James |author-link=James S. Albert| title=Review of Improbable Destinies, Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution | journal=Systematic Biology | publisher=Oxford University Press (OUP) | volume=67 | issue=2 | date=2017-12-27 | issn=1063-5157 | doi=10.1093/sysbio/syx091 | pages=363–365| doi-access=free }}
• {{Cite book |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/610619/the-cats-meow-by-jonathan-b-losos/ |title=The Cat's Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa |publisher=Penguin |year=2023 |isbn=9781984878700}}{{cite news|author=Coyne, Jerry A.|author-link=Jerry Coyne|date=May 3, 2023|title=Why a wildcat lurks within your sweet Fluffy (review of The Cat's Meow by Jonathan B. Losos)|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/05/03/cats-evolution-book-meow-losos/}}

• {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=slwedU4I4JMC |title=The Theory of Island Biogeography Revisited |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2009 |isbn=9781400831920 |editor-last=Losos |editor-first=Jonathan B. |editor-last2=Ricklefs |editor-first2=Robert E.}}
• {{Cite book |title=In the Light of Evolution: Essays from the Laboratory and Field |publisher=W.H. Freeman |year=2011 |isbn=9780981519494}}
• {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_XitAAAAQBAJ |title=The Princeton Guide to Evolution |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2013 |isbn=9781400848065 |editor-last=Losos |editor-first=Jonathan B. |editor-last2=Baum |editor-first2=David A. |editor-last3=Futuyma |editor-first3=Douglas J. |editor-last4=Hoekstra |editor-first4=Hopi E. |editor-last5=Lenski |editor-first5=Richard E. |editor-last6=Moore |editor-first6=Allen J. |editor-last7=Peichel |editor-first7=Catherine L. |editor-last8=Schluter |editor-first8=Dolph |editor-last9=Whitlock |editor-first9=Michael C.}}
• {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iW6YDwAAQBAJ |title=How Evolution Shapes Our Lives: Essays on Biology and Society |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2016 |isbn=9780691170398 |editor-last=Losos |editor-first=Jonathan B. |editor-last2=Lenski |editor-first2=Richard E.}}

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Category:Living people

Category:1961 births

Category:21st-century American biologists

Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Category:Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Category:Harvard College alumni

Category:Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences faculty

Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society

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Category:Presidents of the American Society of Naturalists

Category:Scientists from St. Louis

Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni

Category:Washington University in St. Louis faculty