The David Starr Jordan Prize is awarded to a scientist under the age of 40 who is making contributions to the study of evolution, ecology, population and organismal biology, according to an IU press release.
IU, Stanford and Cornell established the joint endowment in 1986 in honor of David Starr Jordan, who had important ties to each university.
Jordan joined the IU faculty in 1879 as a professor of natural sciences and was appointed IU’s seventh ?president in 1885.
This year’s recipient, Bolnick, is a professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin.
He was awarded the prize for his study of how immune system responses in fish evolve over time and how this affects natural selection.
He was nominated by Peter Wainwright, a professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California.
Bolnick was then selected by a committee of faculty from the three universities.
“I believe his greatest strength and the factor that sets him apart is his mastery of so many areas of biology,” Wainwright said in the press release. “He is an ecologist with a remarkable ability to integrate across speciation, microevolution, genetics and immunology. He is a once-in-a-generation scientist and may already be one of the top evolutionary ecologists in ?the world.”
Bolnick will be awarded $20,000 and a commemorative medal. IU President Michael McRobbie will present the award at a ceremony that this year will be in ?Bloomington March 2.
Bolnick will also present his research at a lecture titled “Variation within populations: Why is it there and why should we care?”
Alison Graham
