SMB and JSMB award the 2015 Akira Okubo Prize to Joshua Plotkin The Society for Mathematical Biology and the Japanese Society for Mathematical Biology are pleased to announce that the 2015 Akira Okubo Prize will be awarded to Joshua Plotkin, Professor of Biology and Computer & Information Science at University of Pennsylvannia. In 2015, the Okubo Prize is awarded to a scientist under 40, for outstanding and innovative theoretical work, for establishing superb conceptual ideas, for solving tough theoretical problems, and/or for uniting theory and data to advance biological science. Professor Plotkins outstanding research achievements in his career to date amply satisfy these exacting criteria and do credit to the memory of Professor Akira Okubo. Professor Plotkins undergraduate degree was in mathematics from Harvard University. He then moved to Princeton, as a PhD student under the supervision of Simon Levin and Martin Nowak. He was the first graduate from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Interfaces Program at Princeton, and was later awarded a BWF Career Award at the Science Interface. His doctoral and post-doctoral research used mathematics to make significant impacts on a wide range of biological debates. This includes work on tropical trees and species-area curves, the evolution of language and language acquisition, and the role of apoptosis and DNA repair in tumorigenesis. More recently Professor Plotkin has focussed on theoretical modelling in evolutionary biology. He has worked extensively on the influenza virus, where he has analysed unique data sets in ways that have exposed novel structure in the diversity of strains. His theoretical work in this area has potentially significant implications for public health. More generally, a particular focus of his recent research has been on adaptation in populations. For example, his work has provided a theoretical basis for the role of neutral mutations, and for inferring properties of an organisms fitness landscape from temporal data. Professor Plotkins research achievements belie his young age. His work is exciting and innovative, addressing fundamental issues in population genetics and evolution. It is with great enthusiasm that the committee awards him the 2015 Akira Okubo Prize.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 02:47:45 +0000
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