Browne Professor:
Warren Ewens
Dr. Warren Ewens, professor of
biology, has been named the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished
Professor of Biology, SAS Dean Samuel H. Preston has announced. Dr.
Ewens, who joined the department
of biology in 1972, holds
a B.A. from the University of Melbourne, and a Ph.D. from
the Australian National University.
Dr. Ewens developed the undergraduate
concentrations of mathematical biology and computational
biology as well as helped to establish the master's,
graduate and post-doctoral programs in computational biology. He currently
serves as the associate director in charge of education in
the Center for Bioinformatics. As a member of the University
Scholars Council, Dr. Ewens provides assistance for honors
students pursuing individual research initiatives. His
outstanding teaching and mentorship have been recognized
in recent years with a Biology Department Teaching Award
and Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching.
An internationally-renowned scholar
of population genetics theory, Dr. Ewens has worked in human
genetics, computational biology, and evolutionary population
genetics. Together with Dr. Richard Spielman, professor
of genetics, he is the creator of the transmission/disequilibrium
test, which is widely used to analyze genetic linkages associated
with complex human diseases. Dr. Ewens has received some
of the scientific community's highest honors for his scholarship,
including election into the Royal Society, where he
is among only 1,300 members worldwide, and the Australian
Academy of Science. He is also the recipient of the
Australian Statistical Society Pitman Medal and Oxford University's
prestigious Weldon Memorial Prize.
The author of several significant
publications, Dr. Ewens has written three books including
his recent Statistical Methods in Bioinformatics with
Dr. Greg Grant. He has served on the editorial boards
of GENETICS, Proceeding of the Royal Society B, SIAM
Journal in Mathematical Biology, Annals of Human Genetics and Theoretical
Population Biology. He also serves on the advisory committees
for several boards, including the Singapore Institute of
Bioinformatics.
This chair is one of five Browne
Distinguished Professorships created by a $10 million gift
from Christopher Browne, C '69. Mr. Browne has been
a member of the SAS Board of Overseers since 1982 and became
chairman in 1999. He has also served as a member of the Board
of Trustees of the University since 1991 and is on several
Trustee committees including the academic policy committee.
His most recent contributions to the University include the
establishment of the Christopher H. Browne Center for International
Politics and the creation of undergraduate scholarships. |