Martin Nowak - Photo Copyright Filip Malinowski & Carlo Pisani
Martin A. Nowak is Professor of Biology and of Mathematics at Harvard University and Director of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics. He works on the mathematical theory of evolution including the evolution of cooperation and human language, the dynamics of virus infections and human cancer. His major scientific discoveries include: the mechanism of HIV disease progression, the rapid turnover and evolution of drug resistance in HIV infection, quantifying the dynamics of HBV infection, evolution of virulence under superinfection and coinfection, the role of chromosomal instability in human cancer, dynamics of chronic myeloid leukemia, evolution of drug resistance in targeted cancer therapy, evolution of genetic redundancy, five mechanisms for the evolution of cooperation, generous tit-for-tat and win-stay, lose-shift, the alternating prisoner's dilemma, evolution of cooperation by indirect reciprocity, spatial game dynamics, adaptive dynamics, evolutionary game dynamics in finite populations, evolutionary graph theory, evolution of eusociality by natural selection, prelife and the origin of evolution.
An Austrian by birth, he studied biochemistry and mathematics at the University of Vienna with Peter Schuster and Karl Sigmund. He received his Ph.D. sub auspiciis praesidentis in 1989. He went on to the University of Oxford as an Erwin Schršoedinger Scholar and worked there with Robert May, the later Lord May of Oxford, with whom he co-authored numerous articles and his first book, "Virus Dynamics". Nowak held Junior Research Fellowships at Wolfson College and Keble College. He was a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow. In 1997 Nowak became Professor of Mathematical Biology in Oxford. In 1998 he moved to Princeton to establish the first program in theoretical biology at the Institute for Advanced Study. He received his present position at Harvard University in 2003.
A corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Nowak is the recipient of several prizes including the Weldon Memorial Prize of Oxford University, the David Starr Jordan Prize of Stanford University and the Akira Okubo Prize of the Society for Mathematical Biology. Nowak is the author of over 400 papers and four books. "Evolutionary Dynamics" (2006) provides an overview of the powerful yet simple laws that govern the evolution of living systems. "SuperCooperators" (2011) argues that cooperation is the third fundamental principle of evolution beside mutation and natural selection.
