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RefNoEC/1992/42
LevelItem
TitleCavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca: certificate of election to the Royal Society
Date1987
DescriptionCertificate of Candidate for Election to Foreign Membership. Citation typed
CitationCavalli-Sforza was one of the early pioneers of bacterial genetics, having made key contributions to the discovery of the sex compatibility (F+F-) and HFR (high frequency mating) systems in E. coli. He also did important work on the genetics of drug resistance in bacteria, analysing multi-step resistance to chloromycetin and developed the sib-selection procedure with Joshua Lederberg.
He is now, however, best known for his outstanding contributions to human population and statistical genetics. He was one of the first to consider systematic models for human population genetics, taking into account demographic factors, especially mating structure of populations and the effects of inbreeding. He pioneered the objective estimation of evolutionary relationships, using gene frequency data through the construction of evolutionary trees. Much of his earlier work is embodied in the now classical joint book "The genetics of human populations".
During the last 15 years Cavalli-Sforza has embarked on two major new developments in human population studies. In the first place, he has combined genetic and anthropological data to suggest models for the migration of Neolithic peoples from their centres of agriculture outward. In doing this he has shown how data on gene frequency clines match expectations that come from anthropological data on the spread of agriculture. The second major development, undertaken partly in collaboration with Mark Feldman, has been to construct a series of innovative models for the inheritance of quantitative human traits which combine cultural with biological inheritance.
Cavalli-Sforza has done more than anyone else to combine theory with data in explaining human genetic variability and its distribution throughout the world. He is a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, and has been a President of the International Biometrics Society.
AccessStatusClosed
Fellows associated with this archive
CodePersonNameDates
NA6377Cavalli-Sforza; Luigi Luca (1922 - 2018)1922 - 2018
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