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2019 American Society of Naturalists Awards

Sewall Wright Award Jonathan B. Losos

The Sewall Wright Award, established in 1991, is given annu- Jonathan has made numerous other fundamental contribu- ally and honors a senior but still active investigator who is tionstothestudyofadaptiveradiationandbiodiversity,in- making fundamental contributions to the goals of the Amer- cluding the evolutionary of biological invasions. How- ican Society of Naturalists, namely, promoting the conceptual ever, his influence is not restricted solely to studies published unification of the biological sciences. The 2019 Sewall Wright in the primary scientific literature. For example, he is a coau- Award honors Jonathan B. Losos, William H. Danforth Dis- thor of the widely used textbook (Raven et al., McGraw- tinguished University Professor at Washington University Hill) and has also published books and articles targeted to- and director of the Living Earth Collaborative, a collaboration ward the more general reader, the latest being the beautiful among Washington University, the Missouri Botanical Gar- and highly readable book Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, den, and the Saint Louis Zoo. and the Future of (Penguin Random House, 2017). Jonathan is known for his integrative approach to the Jonathan served as president of the American Society of study of evolutionary diversification and for his seminal work Naturalists in 2010 and as editor-in-chief of the society’s flag- with Anolis lizards. This work spans field and laboratory stud- ship journal, The American Naturalist, from 2002 to 2006. ies of rapid evolution and includes studies of behavior, ecol- His career has taken him from his first faculty position at ogy, and phylogenetics. One of his best-known and most widely Washington University, to as the curator cited publications is his 1998 Science article that addresses in herpetology at the university’s Museum of Comparative the enduring dichotomy between historical contingency and Zoology, and, in 2018, back again to Washington University predictability in . In this study, Jonathan as the founding director of the Living Earth Collaborative. and collaborators studied Anolis lizards and elegantly demon- He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a strated that they have repeatedly and independently evolved fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well the same ecomorphs on different islands in the Caribbean as the recipient of the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal, the Theo- when they are faced with the same ecological conditions. This dosius Dobzhansky Prize, the Edward O. Wilson Naturalist and subsequent work on the evolution of other traits, includ- Award, and the David Starr Jordan Prize. ing performance, biomechanical, and behavioral traits, in these populations have resulted in Anolis lizards literally becoming a textbook example of the repeatability of adaptive radiation Troy Day and Monica Geber,onbehalfofthe in natural populations. Sewall Wright Award Committee

Edward O. Wilson Naturalist Award Anurag Agrawal

The Edward O. Wilson Naturalist Award is awarded annu- was conferred upon Anurag Agrawal, James A. Perkins Pro- ally to an active midcareer scientist who has made significant fessor of Environmental Studies at Cornell University. contributions to the knowledge of a particular ecosystem or In chapter 3 of (“Struggle for Ex- group of organisms and who through this work has illumi- istence”), argued that the primary cause of nated key principles of evolutionary biology and an en- evolution is antagonistic interactions among species. Anurag hanced appreciation of . In 2019, the award Agrawal’s career has been built on the elaboration of this

This content downloaded from 093.044.108.225 on December 24, 2019 09:45:11 AM All use subject to Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). argument in the context of interactions between plants and ification of plant poisons, the sequestration and modification insects. The sum of his life’s work to date is a mapping of the of the poisons in their own defense, and their direct and in- fantastic complexity of the ongoing arms race between plants direct interactions with each other as they consume a shared and their diverse chemical and physical defenses against her- resource. At a higher level of complexity, he has explored the bivores as well as the ways herbivores overcome those defenses consequences of genetic diversity among plants within a pop- and then turn them into weapons for their own protection ulation and discovered that there is safety in diversity in the against predators. To this complexity he adds the interac- form of reduced herbivore damage. At yet a higher level of tions among different species of herbivores as they compete complexity, he has characterized the evolution of defense for the common plant resource. His research program thus mechanisms across the dozens of species that comprise the captures the multidimensional network of interactions orig- genus Asclepias and characterized the relationship between inally envisioned by Darwin but with the modern dimensions the evolution of plant defenses and species diversity. of chemistry, physiology, genetics, epigenetics, phylogenetics, In spanning this range of biological organization, he has and community ecology that shape how these interactions characterized the importance of phenotypic plasticity and occur. He embodies the ideal of the E. O. Wilson Naturalist trade-offs among different defenses in shaping evolution. He Award with his characterization of this complexity, moti- has amplified our understanding of coevolution, constraint, vated by his observations of natural history. He expands on and convergence in shaping both and mac- this ideal with synthetic reviews that address the underlying roevolution. He has addressed all of these general issues in principles and create bridges among disciplines. He has gone perspectives, synthetic reviews, symposia at national and in- even further by making this science accessible to a general au- ternational conferences, and special issues in leading jour- dience in the form of a prize-winning book, Monarchs and nals, often in ways that create bridges among otherwise un- Milkweed (Princeton University Press, 2017). connected areas of endeavor. He has been a successful mentor Agrawal has sustained a special focus on milkweed (Ascle- to a large number of graduate students and postdocs who have pias spp.) and their specialized herbivores, including monarch developed independent research programs and gone on to butterflies (Danaus plexippus), aphids (Aphis spp.), and bee- successful careers of their own. His leadership in promoting tles (Tetraopes spp.). He has developed and deployed research science includes serving as a special features editor of Ecology tools for characterizing these interactions at levels that range and chairing a review of the National Science Foundation’s from microevolutionary studies of populations to macroevo- Population and Community Ecology Panel. His research has lutionary studies of the entire Asclepias genus to even broader appeared almost exclusively in the most highly ranked jour- studies of flowering plants and insects. At one level, he and his nals in our discipline and the most exclusive interdisciplin- students and collaborators have performed detailed experi- ary journals. mental studies that characterize the details of the physical Anurag Agrawal’s appreciation of natural history, transla- and chemical defenses plants mount against insects and how tion of that appreciation into diverse forms of empirical stud- the insects deal with them. This interaction includes assessing ies of and evolution, skilled communication of his the diversity of cardenolides produced by milkweed and the ideas to technical and general audiences, and leadership in enzymatic defenses of the insects. The plant side involves a the scientific community are what define him as this year’s combination of constitutive and induced responses, which recipient of the E. O. Wilson Naturalist Award. are in turn shaped by trade-offs between them and other features of the plant life cycle, such as regrowth after herbi- David Reznick (chair), Jenn Rudgers, vore damage. The insect side includes the enzymatic detox- and Joseph Travis, the Wilson Award Committee

This content downloaded from 093.044.108.225 on December 24, 2019 09:45:11 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c).