Jonathan Losos
As founding director of the Living Earth Collaborative, Losos seeks to marshal the might of three world-class organizations – the Missouri Botanical Gardens, the Saint Louis Zoo and Washington University, where he is the William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professor in Biology – into a collaboration that transcends geographic and political boundaries to conserve biodiversity and sustain life on Earth.
Before rejoining WashU last year (he was a member of the biology department faculty from 1992 – 2006) Losos taught at Harvard University. The internationally renowned evolutionary biologist, whose research focus centers on the study of lizards in the genus Anolis, is one of the foremost experts on biodiversity of species. He co-authored a seminal biology textbook and more recently, “Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution.”
Losos graduated from Harvard University in 1984 and received his PhD from the University of California in 1989. His work has earned several major awards in his field, including the Edward O. Wilson Naturalist Award. In 2018 he was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences.