For the third time in a decade, a faculty member from the University of Utah biology department has been awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, the so-called "genius grant."
Eric L. Charnov, a U. distinguished professor of biology, is one of 23 scholars to receive the MacArthur Fellowship this year. Along with the recognition, Charnov gets $300,000 over the next five years with no strings attached.The fellowships were started in 1981 by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to reward excellence in arts, science, literature and other areas of scholarship. To date, 502 MacArthur Fellows have been named.
A U. faculty member since 1973, Charnov is the third U. biologist to win the honor. Preceding him were Jon Seger in 1987 and Sharon Emerson in 1995.
Charnov is a theoretical biologist whose work encompasses three disciplines: evolutionary biology, ecology and animal behavior. He is known for developing realistic mathematical models to explain foraging behavior and the evolution of patterns of gender, as well as species' life history and demography.
He has published three books: "The Theory of Sex Allocation," "Infant/Mother Attachment" and "Life History Invariants: Some Explorations of Symmetry in Evolutionary Ecology."
Charnov received his bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and his doctorate from the University of Washington.