Richard Lenski

Richard Lenski
  • Hannah Professor of Microbial Ecology
  • Microbiology & Molecular Genetics
  • Plant Soil and Microbial Sciences

WEBSITE

http://myxo.css.msu.edu/index.html

BIOGRAPHY

The main focus of my lab is on experimental evolution. Evolution is usually investigated using the comparative method or by studying fossils. Our approach is to watch evolution as it happens, in the context of experiments that are replicated and performed under controlled conditions. The idea of watching evolution in action is not new. In fact, Charles Darwin, in the first edition of On the Origin of Species (1859, p. 187), said "In looking for the gradations by which an organ in any species has been perfected, we ought to look exclusively to its lineal ancestors ; but this is scarcely ever possible, and we are forced in each case to look to species of the same group, that is to the collateral descendants from the same original parent-form."

AREA OF EXPERTISE

  • Bacteria, primarily Escherichia coli; and
  • Digital organisms in the Avida system.