CURRICULUM VITAE
C. WILLIAM BIRKY, JR.
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Biological Sciences
West, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721
Phone: 520-626-6513 Fax: 520-621-9190 e-mail:
birky@u.arizona.edu
Web site: http://eebweb.arizona.edu/facuulty/birky/home.html
EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT
- B.A. 1959 Indiana University
- Ph.D. 1963 Indiana University
- Instructor, Assistant Professor, Department of Zoology, and member
of interdepartmental Genetics Program, University of California at
Berkeley, 1964 - 70
- Associate Professor to Professor, Department of Molecular Genetics,
The Ohio State University, 1970 - 97
- Member of Interdepartmental Molecular, Cellular and Developmental
Biology Program, The Ohio State University, 1970 - 86
- Chairman of the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Genetics, The
University of Arizona, 1997- 2003.
- Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 1997-2007.
- Professor Emeritus, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology,
2007-present
SABBATICALS
- Dartmouth College
- University College London
- University of Colorado
- Duke University
- University of Arizona (twice)
HONORS, AWARDS, ELECTED OFFICES
- Sigma Xi Faculty Research Award, The Ohio State University, 1972
- Hargitt Fellow in Cell Biology, Duke University, 1977 - 78
- President-Elect, President, and Past President, American Genetic
Association, 1991 - 93; Council Member and member of Long-Range
Planning Committee, 1988-91.
- Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
(elected 1997)
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS (our of more than 80. For a complete list, see http://eebweb.arizona.edu/faculty/birky/Publications.html.)- Birky, C. William, Jr., and John J. Gilbert (1971) Parthenogenesis in rotifers: the control of sexual and asexual reproduction. Am. Zoologist 11:245-266.
- Birky, C. William, Jr, Takeo Maruyama, and Paul Fuerst (1983) An approach to population and evolutionary genetic theory for genes in mitochondria and chloroplasts, and some results. Genetics 103:513-527.
- Birky, C. William, Jr. (1983) Relaxed cellular controls and organelle heredity. Science 222:468-475.
- Birky, C. William, Jr, and J. Bruce Walsh (1988) Effects of linkage on rates of molecular evolution. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 85:6414-6418.
- Birky, C. W., Jr., 1991 Evolution and population genetics of organelle genes: Mechanisms and models. In: Evolution at the Molecular Level, Edited by R. K. Selander, A. G. Clark, T. S. Whittam. Sinauer, Sunderland, Mass.
- Birky, C. William, Jr. (1995) Uniparental inheritance of mitochondria and chloroplast genes: mechanisms and evolution. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. UISA 92:11331-11338.
- Birky, C. William, Jr. (1996) Heterozygosity, heteromorphy, and phylogenetic trees in asexual eukaryotes. Genetics 144:427-437.
- Birky, C. William, Jr. (1999) An even broader perspective on the evolution of sex. J. Evol. Biol. 12:1013-1016.
- Birky, C. William, Jr. (2001) The inheritance of genes in mitochondria and chloroplasts: Laws, mechanisms, and models. Annu. Rev. Genet. 35:125-148.
- Vernon, Dawne, Robin Gutell, Jaime Cannone, Robert Rumpf, and C. William Birky, Jr. (2001). Accelerated evolution of functional plastid rRNA and elongation factor genes due to reduced protein synthetic load after the loss of photosynthesis in the chlorophyte alga Polytoma. Mol. Biol. Evol. 18:1810-1822.
- Lizhi Yu, C.. William Birky, Jr., and Rodney D. Adam (2002) The two nuclei of Giardia each have complete copies of the genome as demonstrated by fluorescence in situ hybridization. Eukaryotic Cell 1:191-199.
- Maughan, H., C. W. Birky,Jr, W. L. Nicholson, W. D. Rosenzweig, and R. H. Vreeland (2002). The paradox of the ancient bacterium which contains modern protein-coding genes. Mol. Biol. Evol. 19:1637-1639.
- Barraclough, Timothy G., C. William Birky, Jr., and Austin Burt (2003) Diversification in sexual and asexual organisms. Evolution 57:2166-2172.
- Birky, C. William, Jr. (2004) Bdelloid rotifers revisited. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 101:2651-2652.
- Birky, C. William, Jr., Cynthia Wolf, Heather Maughan, Linnea Herbertson, Elena Henry (2005) Speciation and selection without sex. Hydrobiologia 546:29-45.
- Birky, C. William, Jr. (2005) Sex: Is Giardia doing it in the dark? Current Biology 15:R56-58
- Maughan, Heather., Victoria Callicotte, Adam Hancock, C. William Birky, Jr., Wayne L. Nicholson, Joanna Masel (2006) The population genetics of phenotypic deterioration in experimental populations of Bacillus subtilis. Evolution 60:686-695.
- Birky, C. William, Jr. (2006) Barcoded DNA: Application to rotifer phylogeny, evolution, and systematics. Hydrobiologia 593:175-183.
- Maughan, Heather, Joanna Masel, C. William Birky, Jr., Wayne L. Nicholson (2007) The roles of mutation accumulation and selection in loss of sporulation in experimental populations of Bacillus subtilis. Genetics 177:937-948.
- Birky, C. William, Jr. (2008) Uniparental inheritance of organelle genes. Curr. Biol. 18:R692-R695.
- Birky, C. William, Jr., Timothy G. Barraclough (2009) Asexual Speciation. In Lost Sex. The Evolutionary Biology of Parthenogenesis. Peter Van Dijk, Koen Martens, Isa Schön (eds.) Springer. pp. 201-216.
- Birky, C. William, Jr. (2009). Sex and evolution in eukaryotes. In Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), Developed under the auspices of the UNESCO, Eolss Publishers, Oxford, UK, [http://www.eolss.net]
- Birky, C. William, Jr. (2010) Giardia sex? Yes, but how and how much? Trends Parasitol. 26:70-74.
- Birky, C. William, Jr. (2010) Positively negative evidence for asexuality. J. Hered. 101(supp.):S42-S45.
- Birky, C. William, Jr., Joshua Adams, Marlea Gemmel, Julia Perry (2010) Using population genetic theory and DNA sequences for species detection and identification in asexual organisms. PLoS One 5(5):e10609.
- Birky, C. William, Jr., Claudia Ricci, Giulio Melone, Diego Fontaneto (2011) Integrating DNA and traditional ta--xonomy to describe diversity in poorly studied microscopic animals: new species of the genus Abrochtha Bryce, 1910 (Rotifera: Bdelloidea: Philodinavidae). Zool. J. Linnean Soc. 161:723-734
SOME RECENT INVITED PRESENTATIONS
- Birky, C. William, Jr.. Speciation Without Sex. First PARTNER
Workshop on Ancient Asexuals and Time Scales, Wageningen,
Netherlands, November 20, 2003.
- Birky, C. William, Jr. Species and Speciation. Tucson Audubon
Society, Mason Audubon Center, Feb. 17, 2004.
- Birky, C. William, Jr. Comparing Diversity in Asexuals and Sexuals.
Third PARTNER Workshop on Diversity in Asexuals: Patterns and
Processes, Muenster, Germany, October 7, 2004.
- Birky, C. William, Jr. Comparing Genetic Diversity in Asexuals and
Sexuals.: Fourth PARTNER Workshop and Linnean Society meeting on The
Paradox of Asexuality: An Evaluation, London, England, October 24,
2005.
- Birky, C. William, Jr. Lecture series: The Molecular Clock and Other Evolutionary
Constants; Why Mitochondria and Chloroplasts Don't Obey Mendel's
Laws; Patterns and Mechanisms of Organelle Gene Inheritance; and Who
is Having Sex and Why is Anybody Doing It? The Evolutionary Role of
Sexual Reproduction, parts I and II. Graduate School of Earth,
Environment, and Biodiversity, University of Milan, Milan, Italy,
March 14-17, 2008.
- Birky, C. William, Jr. Is There Meaningful Life Without Sex? Using Mitochondrial Genes to
Define Species and Study Natural Selection in Asexual Organisms.
Section of Ecology, Behavior & Evolution, Division of Biology,
University of California at San Diego, May 18, 2008.
- Birky, C. William, Jr. DNA Barcoding the Right Way: A Theory-based Method for Species
Detection and Identification. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary
Biology, University of Arizona, February 26, 2011.
- Birky, C. William, Jr. DNA Barcoding the Right Way: A Theory-based Method for Species
Detection and Identification. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary
Biology, University of Colorado, October 21, 2011.