Walter M. Fitch

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Walter Monroe Fitch (born May 21, 1929 in San Diego , † March 10, 2011 in Irvine , California ) was an American molecular biologist and evolutionary researcher. He is considered the founder of molecular phylogeny .

Walter Fitch earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1953 and a doctorate in biochemistry in 1958 . After several years of research as a post-doctoral student , he taught from 1962 to 1986 as a professor at the School of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin – Madison . He then moved to the University of Southern California , where he was professor of biology from 1986 to 1989 and then held a chair in ecology and evolutionary biology until his death.

In the 1960s and 1970s, among other things, he dealt with theories of evolution at the molecular level . He designed computer algorithms with the help of which the close relationship of organisms could be determined using protein or nucleotide sequences and graphically illustrated in phylogenetic trees using a distance matrix (“Fitch-Margoliash method” and “Fitch parsimony algorithm”). In particular, cytochrome c served as a model case . He developed methods to distinguish homologous and analogous structures in proteins, a prerequisite for the reconstruction of a tribal history on the basis of biochemical features.

His main scientific work is the study Construction of Phylogenetic Trees , published in Science in 1967 , which is regarded as one of the founding texts of molecular phylogeny . He also worked on reconstructing the molecular evolution of HI viruses and influenza viruses .

Walter Fitch headed the newly founded journal Molecular Biology and Evolution for ten years from 1983 and was co-founder and founding chairman of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution in 1992 . The Walter M. Fitch Award of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution was named after him in 1993 . He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, since 1991 the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , the Linnean Society of London and the American Philosophical Society .

On his death, Fitch left behind the almost completed manuscript for his book Logic, Rhetoric, and Science: And Why Creationism Fails at All Three , which was published by the University in March 2012 under the title The Three Failures of Creationism: Logic, Rhetoric, and Science of California has been released.

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  1. ^ William A. Atchley: Walter M. Fitch (1929-2011). In: Science , Volume 332, 2011, p. 804, doi: 10.1126 / science.1207426
personal data
SURNAME Fitch, Walter M.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fitch, Walter Monroe (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American molecular biologist and evolutionary researcher
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH San Diego
DATE OF DEATH March 10, 2011
Place of death Irvine