By Phil Williams
By Phil Williams
Wyatt Anderson, dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, has been elected a Fellow in the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The Academy honors leading intellectuals from this country and abroad in every field and profession. Its membership now totals 3,500 Fellows and 600 Foreign Honorary Members. Since its founding in 1780, its purpose has been, in the words of its charter, "to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity and happiness of a free, independent and virtuous people."
"I am delighted to be honored by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences," says Anderson, who is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences. "I hope to play an active role as a member."
A native of Brunswick, Anderson received his bachelor's and master's degrees from UGA in 1960 and 1962 and his doctorate from Rockefeller University in 1967. He taught at Yale University from 1966 to 1972 and came to the department of zoology at UGA in 1972. He achieved the rank of full professor in 1975.
From 1980 to 1987 he was professor and head of the department of genetics. In 1988, Anderson was named Alumni Foundation Distinguished Professor of Genetics and he was named dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences in 1992.
Anderson has won a number of honors during his career, including election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has served as president of the American Society of Naturalists and the American Genetic Association and as vice president for the national Society for the Study of Evolution. He has served on study panels of the National Science Foundation and on the editorial boards of Genetics, American Naturalist, Evolution and the Journal of Heredity. He currently serves as an associate editor of the Annual Review of Genetics.
Anderson's research has focused on molecular evolution using Drosophila--the fruit fly--as his laboratory test species.
He has taught numerous genetics classes over the years at UGA and recently taught a freshman seminar.
Other active or emeritus members of the Academy at UGA are John Avise, Brent Berlin, Norman Giles, Hugh Kenner, William McFeely and Eugene Odum.
