His analysis has targeted on the research of protein sequences for the reconstruction of evolutionary historical past. Ayala was born in Madrid, studied on the University of Salamanca, and was ordained a Dominican priest in 1960. One yr later he moved to the United States, the place he obtained his doctorate in genetics from Columbia University
The Spanish evolution biologist Francisco Ayala died this Sunday, every week earlier than his 89th birthday, in accordance with his pal, the American theoretical physicist Lawrence M. Krauss.
Ayala (Madrid, 1934) studied on the University of Salamanca and was ordained a Dominican priest in 1960, transferring a yr later to check within the United States, the place he obtained a doctorate in genetics from Columbia University in New York, being a disciple of the Ukrainian-American geneticist and evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky.
Subsequently, he joined the Rockefeller University and the University of California, the place he taught and obtained US citizenship.
Considered one of the crucial excellent Spanish scientists, his analysis has targeted on the research of protein sequences for the reconstruction of evolutionary historical past, though he has additionally investigated the origin of malaria, Chagas illness and different parasitic illnesses. . Likewise, he specialised within the philosophy of biology, bioethics and the connection between science and faith, though he hung up the behavior.
Ayala, who lived within the United States, thus signed greater than 40 books and a thousand scientific papers. He was additionally named physician honoris causa by dozens of universities in several international locations, comparable to Greece, Argentina, Poland, Russia, the United States or Spain, amongst others.
He was additionally an adviser to former US President Bill Clinton and obtained the Templeton Prize, in addition to being a member of the United States Academy of Sciences, from which he was expelled in 2021 after proving that he had sexually harassed a number of feminine colleagues.
The expulsion befell after Ayala needed to resign from the University of California, Irvine in 2018, following an investigation that discovered him responsible of sexual harassment. The biologist denied the allegations in opposition to him, which included making sexually suggestive feedback and welcoming a junior instructor to sit down on his lap.
The American theoretical physicist Lawrence M. Krauss has lamented the loss of life of Ayala, “a loss for science and for the world,” as he expressed in an article on his weblog devoted to the biologist. Of him, he has additionally highlighted that he was a “scholar” and a “gentleman” who labored to “defend the instructing of evolution, even to persuade the Catholic Church to not abandon it.”