Scott V. Edwards

Scott Vernon Edwards is the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Organismal and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and the Curator of Ornithology at Harvard's associated museum, the Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Scott V. Edwards
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHarvard University
University of California, Berkeley
Scientific career
FieldsOrnithology, evolutionary biology
InstitutionsHarvard University

Early life and education

Edwards was born in Honolulu, Hawaii[1] and raised in the Riverdale area of the Bronx in New York City, where he worked for the local public horticultural institution Wave Hill. He attended Harvard University as an undergraduate and received his bachelor's degree in biology in 1986. He received his Ph.D. in zoology from University of California, Berkeley in 1992 and then spent two years as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Florida working with Wayne Potts and Ward Wakeland on molecular evolution in wild bird populations.[2]

Career

Edwards became an assistant professor of zoology at the University of Washington and curator at the Burke Museum in 1994. In 2003 he moved to Harvard University to join the Department of Organismal and Evolutionary Biology and become the Curator of Ornithology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. In 2013 he was appointed to a two-year position as the Director of the Division of Biological Infrastructure at the National Science Foundation.[1]

Edwards was elected a fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union in 2006, of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2009, and of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2015.[1][3] According to The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, Edwards is one of only two black scientists out of the 84 chosen that year.[4]

He has cited early mentorship as a positive influence in developing his research interests and works actively to increase representation of minorities in his field, particularly through offering research experiences to undergraduates.[5][6] He was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2015[3] and to the American Philosophical Society in 2020.[7]

Research

Edwards' research focuses on the molecular evolution of birds. Several papers from his group describe the evolution of birds from dinosaurs; for example, genetic evidence was reported for the evolution of genes involved in feather formation much earlier than the common ancestor of modern birds, supporting the hypothesis that non-avian dinosaurs had feathers.[8][9] Comparative genomics analyses published by the group suggest that dinosaurs have small genomes like modern birds.[10][11] Edwards has advocated for modernizing methods in phylogenomics by incorporating advancements in sequencing technologies[12] and by using coalescent models that incorporate incomplete lineage sorting (which is widespread among birds).[13]

Edwards' group was also involved in the Avian Phylogenomics Consortium, which in 2014 published a large series of papers on avian phylogenomics.[14][15] His lab is currently involved in the Earth BioGenome Project.[16]

Edwards has published on the importance of natural history collections for undergraduate education,[17] and he co-developed a program called AIM-UP, which incorporated museum collections into educational programming for undergraduates.[18] He has also edited a book republishing rare early drawings by John Audubon.[19][20]

References
  1. Edwards, Scott V. "Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). Edwards Laboratory. Harvard University. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  2. Edwards, Scott V. "Scott V. Edwards". Edwards Laboratory. Harvard University. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  3. Kacoyanis, Stephanie. "Harvard faculty elected to NAS". Harvard Gazette. Harvard University. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  4. "Two Black Scholars Elected Members of the National Academy of Sciences". Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. May 11, 2015. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  5. Parks, Clinton (May 12, 2006). "Directing Minorities Toward Careers in Evolutionary Biology". Science Careers. Science. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  6. Parker, Mary (March 19, 2013). "Scott Edwards' job is for the birds". Member Spotlight. AAAS MemberCentral. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  7. https://www.amphilsoc.org/blog/american-philosophical-society-welcomes-new-members-2020
  8. Zimmer, Carl (November 20, 2014). "Your Inner Feather – Phenomena: The Loom". Phenomena: The Loom. National Geographic. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
  9. Lowe, Craig B.; Clarke, Julia A.; Baker, Allan J.; Haussler, David; Edwards, Scott V. (January 1, 2015). "Feather Development Genes and Associated Regulatory Innovation Predate the Origin of Dinosauria". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 32 (1): 23–28. doi:10.1093/molbev/msu309. ISSN 0737-4038. PMC 4271537. PMID 25415961.
  10. Bradt, Steve (March 8, 2007). "Despite their heft, many dinosaurs had surprisingly tiny genomes". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
  11. Organ, Chris L.; Shedlock, Andrew M.; Meade, Andrew; Pagel, Mark; Edwards, Scott V. (March 8, 2007). "Origin of avian genome size and structure in non-avian dinosaurs". Nature. 446 (7132): 180–184. Bibcode:2007Natur.446..180O. doi:10.1038/nature05621. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 17344851. S2CID 3031794.
  12. Edwards, Scott V.; Shultz, Allison J.; Campbell-Staton, Shane C. (2015). "Next-generation sequencing and the expanding domain of phylogeography". Folia Zoologica. 64 (3): 187–206. doi:10.25225/fozo.v64.i3.a2.2015. ISSN 0139-7893. S2CID 27832022.
  13. Liu, Liang; Anderson, Christian; Pearl, Dennis; Edwards, Scott V. (2019). Modern Phylogenomics: Building Phylogenetic Trees Using the Multispecies Coalescent Model. Evolutionary Genomics. Methods in Molecular Biology. 1910. pp. 211–239. doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-9074-0_7. ISBN 978-1-4939-9073-3. ISSN 1064-3745. PMID 31278666.
  14. Zhang, Guojie; Jarvis, Erich D.; Gilbert, M. Thomas P. (December 12, 2014). "A flock of genomes". Science. 346 (6215): 1308–1309. Bibcode:2014Sci...346.1308Z. doi:10.1126/science.346.6215.1308. ISSN 0036-8075. PMC 4407557. PMID 25504710.
  15. "Avian Phylogenomics Project". avian.genomics.cn. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
  16. Lewin, Harris A.; Robinson, Gene E.; Kress, W. John; Baker, William J.; Coddington, Jonathan; Crandall, Keith A.; Durbin, Richard; Edwards, Scott V.; Forest, Félix; Gilbert, M. Thomas P.; Goldstein, Melissa M.; Grigoriev, Igor V.; Hackett, Kevin J.; Haussler, David; Jarvis, Erich D.; Johnson, Warren E.; Patrinos, Aristides; Richards, Stephen; Castilla-Rubio, Juan Carlos; van Sluys, Marie-Anne; Soltis, Pamela S.; Xu, Xun; Yang, Huanming; Zhang, Guojie (2018). "Earth BioGenome Project: Sequencing life for the future of life". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115 (17): 4325–4333. doi:10.1073/pnas.1720115115. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 5924910. PMID 29686065.
  17. Cook, Joseph A.; Edwards, Scott V.; Lacey, Eileen A.; Guralnick, Robert P.; Soltis, Pamela S.; Soltis, Douglas E.; Welch, Corey K.; Bell, Kayce C.; Galbreath, Kurt E. (August 1, 2014). "Natural History Collections as Emerging Resources for Innovative Education". BioScience. 64 (8): 725–734. doi:10.1093/biosci/biu096. ISSN 0006-3568.
  18. "RCN-UBE: Advancing Integration of Museums into Undergraduate Programs (AIM-UP!)". National Science Foundation. Retrieved October 25, 2020.
  19. Maxwell Braun, David (November 3, 2008). "Rare Early Audubon Drawings Published for First Time". Voices: Ideas and Insight from Explorers. National Geographic. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
  20. Rosen, Jonathan (December 7, 2008). "Audubon". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
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