Image: © 2007 Erik Jacobs, Jacobs Photographic
Martin Nowak
director
Contact
Program for Evolutionary DynamicsHarvard University
One Brattle Square, suite 6
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138-3758
U.S.A.
phone: +1 (617) 496 4737
fax: +1 (617) 496 4629
Courses
Publications
booksselected list
articles in Scientific American, Natural History, and New Scientist
complete list
Some Press
Discover magazine 2012
Wisconsin Public Radio 2012 MP3:
Plus magazine 2012
Wired 2011
profil 2011
New York Times 2011
New Scientist 2011
ORF 2011
Die Presse 2011
Die Presse 2011
Studium 2011
New York Times 2010
Ziarul de Iasi 2010
Harvard Magazine 2010
JHU Gazette 2010
JHU news release 2010
bridges 2009
derStandard.at 2009
German Public Radio 2009
Die Presse 2009
Boston Globe 2008
Scientific American 2008
New York Times 2007
Boston Globe 2007
Harvard Magazine 2007
Panorama news magazine 2007
Yomiuri newspaper 2007
Die Presse newspaper 2007
Panda's Thumb 2007
ScienceBlogs 2007
Harvard Crimson 2003
Thirteen/WNET 2003
Stanford University News 2002
Esquire 1999
Discover magazine 1993
New York Times 1992
Chicago Sun Times 1992
Martin A. Nowak is Professor of Biology and Mathematics at Harvard University and Director of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics. He works on the mathematical description of evolutionary processes, including the evolution of cooperation and human language, as well as the dynamics of virus infections and human cancer. His major scientific contributions and discoveries include: the mechanism of HIV disease progression; the rapid turnover and evolution of drug resistance in HIV infection; quantifying the dynamics of HBV infection; the evolution of virulence under superinfection and coinfection; the role of chromosomal instability in human cancer; quantifying the dynamics of chronic myeloid leukemia; the accumulation of drivers and passengers in cancer progression; the evolution of drug resistance in targeted cancer therapy; the mechanisms for the evolution of genetic redundancy; "generous tit-for-tat" and "win-stay, lose-shift"; the alternating Prisoner's Dilemma; the evolution of cooperation by indirect reciprocity; spatial game dynamics; adaptive dynamics; evolutionary game dynamics in finite populations; evolutionary graph theory; the five mechanisms for the evolution of cooperation; the evolution of eusociality by natural selection; a mathematical approach for studying the evolution of human language; the dynamics of language regularization; culturomics; "winners don't punish"; prelife; and the origin of evolution.
An Austrian by birth, he studied biochemistry and mathematics at the University of Vienna with Peter Schuster and Karl Sigmund. He received his Ph.D. sub auspiciis praesidentis in 1989. He went on to the University of Oxford as an Erwin Schrödinger Scholar and worked there with Robert May, the later Lord May of Oxford, with whom he co-authored numerous articles and his first book, Virus Dynamics (2000). Nowak was a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College and later at Keble College. He was also a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow. Nowak became head of the mathematical biology group at Oxford in 1995 and Professor of Mathematical Biology in 1997. A year later, he moved to Princeton to establish the first program in theoretical biology at the Institute for Advanced Study. He accepted his present position at Harvard University in 2003.
A corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Nowak is the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Weldon Memorial Prize of Oxford University, the David Starr Jordan Prize of Stanford University, and the Akira Okubo Prize of the Society for Mathematical Biology. Nowak is the author of over 350 papers and four books. Evolutionary Dynamics (2006) provides an overview of the powerful yet simple laws that govern the evolution of living systems. SuperCooperators (2011) argues that cooperation is the third fundamental principle of evolution beside mutation and selection.
Current Research Interests
| Evolutionary dynamics |
| Somatic evolution of cancer, genetic instability |
| Molecularly targeted anti-cancer therapy |
| Infectious diseases, immunology, virus dynamics |
| Quasispecies theory |
| Genetic redundancy |
| Evolutionary game theory |
| Adaptive dynamics |
| Finite populations |
| Evolutionary graph theory |
| Evolution of language |
| Cooperation, fairness, reputation |
| Indirect reciprocity |
| Group selection |
| Experimental games |
| Origin of evolution, prelife |
Education
| 1975-1983 | Albertus Magnus Gymnasium in Vienna |
| 1983-1989 | University of Vienna, studying Biochemistry and Mathematics |
| 1985 | First Diploma: Biochemistry (with highest honors) |
| 1987 | Diploma thesis: Theoretical Chemistry |
| 1987 | Second Diploma: Biochemistry (with highest honors) |
| 1987-1989 | Doctoral thesis: Mathematics |
| 1989 | Doctor rerum naturalium (sub auspiciis praesidentis) |
Scientific Career
| Vienna | |
|---|---|
| 1987-1988 | Institute for Theoretical Chemistry, Professor Peter Schuster |
| 1987-1989 | Institute for Mathematics, Professor Karl Sigmund |
| Sept-Nov 1988 | Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany, Professor Manfred Eigen |
| 1993 | "Habilitation" at the Institute of Mathematics, University of Vienna (Universitäts Dozent) |
| Oxford | |
|---|---|
| 1989-1990 | Erwin Schrödinger Scholarship to work with Professor Sir Robert May |
| 1990-1992 | Guy Newton Junior Research Fellow, Wolfson College |
| 1992-1998 | Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in Biomedical Sciences |
| 1993-1996 | E. P. Abraham Junior Research Fellow, Keble College |
| 1995-1998 | Head of Mathematical Biology Group |
| 1996-1998 | Senior Research Fellow, Keble College |
| 1997-1998 | Professor of Mathematical Biology |
| Princeton | |
|---|---|
| 1998-2003 | Head, Program in Theoretical Biology Institute for Advanced Study |
| 1999-2003 | Associated Faculty, Princeton University, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology |
| 2000-2003 | Associated Faculty, Princeton University, Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics |
| Harvard | |
|---|---|
| 2003- | Professor of Mathematics and Biology |
| 2003- | Director, Program for Evolutionary Dynamics |
Prizes, Named Lectures and Memberships
| 1990 | Prize from the Austrian Science Minister |
| 1990 | Promotion sub auspiciis praesidentis rei publicae |
| 1995 | Richardson Lecture, Keble College, Oxford |
| 1996 | Weldon Memorial Prize |
| 1997 | Shanks Lecture, Vanderbilt University |
| 1998 | Albert Wander Prize and Memorial Lecture, University of Bern |
| 1999 | Roger F. Murray Prize, Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance |
| 1999 | Akira Okubo Prize, International and Japanese Society for Mathematical Biology |
| 1999 | Erwin Schroedinger Lecture, University of Vienna |
| 1999 | Porter Lecture, Rice University |
| 2000 | Gergen Lecture, Duke University |
| 2001 | David Starr Jordan Prize, Stanford University, Cornell University, Indiana University |
| 2001 | Rainich Lectures, University of Michigan |
| 2001 | Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences |
| 2001 | Benjamin Pinkel Lecture, University of Pennsylvania |
| 2003 | Henry Dale Prize, The Royal Institution, London |
| 2006 | Invited Lecture, Congress for Mathematics, Madrid |
| 2006 | R.R. Hawkins Award for Evolutionary Dynamics, Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division of the American Association of Publishers |
| 2007 | Radon Lecture, Austrian Academy of Sciences |
| 2008 | Coxeter Lectures, Fields Institute, Toronto |
| 2010 | Templeton Research Lectures at Johns Hopkins University |
| 2010 | Doctor Honoris Causa, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania |
| 2011 | Max Planck Lecture, Stuttgart, Germany |
| 2012 | MBI 10th Anniversary Keynote talk, Ohio State University |
| 2012 | Plenary speaker, Canadian Mathematical Society |
| 2013 | Winifred Asprey Distinguished Lectures in Mathematics, Vassar College |
Editorial Work
Editorial board member: Proceedings of the Royal Society London, Journal of Theoretical Biology, Journal of Theoretical Medicine, Journal of Difference Equations, International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos. Referee: Nature, Science, PNAS, and others.
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