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WSU professor to receive high honor from American Association of Physical Anthropologists

Morris Goodman, pioneer in molecular evolution, named recipient of Charles R. Darwin Award for Lifetime Achievement

Dr. Morris Goodman, Wayne State University School of Medicine distinguished professor of anatomy, will receive the 2002 Charles R. Darwin Award for Lifetime Achievement in April, the American Association of Physical Anthropologists recently announced. 

The association honors a senior scientist annually who has made unique and outstanding contributions to the science and profession of physical anthropology over a lifetime of distinguished achievement.

“Morris is a brilliant scientist and teacher whose dedicated and original work has not only contributed immensely to our understanding of primate and human evolution but has built the foundation for an entirely new and important scientific field,” said John Crissman, MD, dean of the WSU School of Medicine. “We are honored to call him one of our faculty members.”

Dr. Goodman has influenced debate and scientific study about man’s molecular and genetic history through his critically important observations and discoveries.  During the past 42 years, he has established himself as a founding pioneer of the field of molecular phylogenetics with his initial discoveries about the genetic similarities between humans and other primates.

In 1962, Dr. Goodman’s assertion that chimpanzees and gorillas are genetically more closely related to humans than to other apes, and thus should be place in family Hominidae rather than Pongidae, sparked debate.  However, his research based on molecular evidence has since been generally accepted, including a later discovery from DNA sequences that chimpanzees and humans are more closely related to each other than either is to gorillas or other apes.

This work has impacted the study of humankind’s place in nature and paved the way for important discoveries of other species’ evolutionary history.  Dr. Goodman’s work in unlocking genetic history also has important implications to medical science, particularly the field of hemoglobinopathies, a class of disorders related to hereditary disorders affecting hemoglobin such as sickle-cell disease.

Most recently, Dr. Goodman was awarded a four-year, $1.8 million National Science Foundation grant to study genomic changes that increased the human brain’s cognitive capacities. In 1996, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Goodman will receive this award on April 12, 2002 at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists’ annual business meeting in Buffalo, New York.