Board of Advisors

University Professor and Donald Bren Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. He received his Ph.D. in genetics from Columbia University. Ayala has been president and chairman of the Board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and president of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society of the U.S. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and many foreign academies, and has received numerous prizes and honorary degrees. His scientific research focuses on population and evolutionary genetics, including the origin of species, genetic diversity of populations, the origin of malaria, the population structure of parasitic protozoa, and the molecular clock of evolution. He has published more than 1,000 articles and is author or editor of 37 books. Ayala also writes about the interface between religion and science, and on philosophical issues concerning epistemology, ethics, and the philosophy of biology. Born in Madrid, Spain, Ayala has lived in the United States since 1961, and became a U.S. citizen in 1971. From 1994 to 2001, he was a member of the U.S. President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology. In 2002, Dr. Ayala received the National Medal of Science from President George W. Bush at a White House ceremony. He was awarded the 2010 Templeton Prize.