Warren College Faculty

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Christopher J. Wills

Professor of Biology

Christopher Wills received his B.A. and M.Sc. in biology from the University of British Columbia in 1960 and 1962, and a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1965. He was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at Berkeley from 1965-66 and an Assistant Professor of Biology at Wesleyan University in Connecticut from 1966 to 1972. He came to UCSD as an Associate Professor of Biology, and is now a full professor. He is also a member of the Center for Molecular Genetics. This spring he will be teaching two courses, BILD 3 which introduces students to evolution, behavior and ecology, and BIEB 154, an upper-division class in molecular evolution.

Because he is an evolutionary biologist, his research interests are varied. He is currently exploring the role of genetic recombination in evolution, using yeast as a model organism. He is collaborating with a world-wide group of tropical ecologists to investigate how complex ecosystems such as tropical rainforests maintain their diversity. Other research interests include the evolutionary role of the short repeated sequences of DNA known as microsatellites, and the evolution of human mitochondrial sequences.

He has also devoted much time to communicating science to the general public, through a series of books such as "The Runaway Brain," "Children of Prometheus," and (with Jeff Bada) "The Spark of Life." In 1999 he was given the AAAS award for public understanding of science. He is now turning his attention to the teaching of evolution. He revised the evolution section of Campbell's Biology, and is currently working on an undergraduate evolution text for Freeman and Co.

In addition to writing for the public, he enjoys photography, SCUBA diving, and travel to as many exotic places as possible.

Research in his lab includes opportunities for students to work on the yeast recombination project, and some new bioinformatics projects that are opening up with the publication of complete primate genomes. Please visit my website for more information about my research, teaching, etc.: http://biology.ucsd.edu/faculty/wills.html.

Degrees/institutions:
    Ph.D., Genetics, University of California, Berkeley, 1965
    M.Sc., Biology, University of British Columbia, 1962
    B.S., Biology, University of British Columbia, 1960

Courses:
    BIEB 154   Molecular Evolution
    BILD 3   Organismic and Evolutionary Biology