Gunter Paul Wagner, PhD

Alison Richard Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Biographical Info

Günter P. Wagner is an evolutionary geneticist with training in biochemcial engineering, zoology and mathematics from the University of Vienna, Austria. I spent six postdoctoral years at the Max Planck Institutes for Biophysical Chemistry (Goettingen, Germany) and for Developmental Biology (Tübingen, Germany). My academic career started at the University of Vienna and in 1991 I followed a call to assume a full professorship at the Biology Department at Yale. From 1996 to 2001 I was Chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale, and in 2010 my lab will move to the Institute for Systems Biology at Yale's West Campus.

My research interest is the evolution of gene regulation as it pertains to the origin of evolutionary novelties. In particular I my lab is focusing on the evolution of the endometrial stromal cells in the context of the origin of placentation. Another focus of my lab is the developmental basis of character identity, as for instance in the case of digit identity of birds.

In 1992 I received the MacArthur Fellowship for my research on the developmental basis of homology and in 1997 I was elected both to become corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Education & Training

Ph.D.

University of Vienna (1979)

Postdoc

Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Neurobiology (1979 - 1981)

Postdoc

University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany, Anatomy (1981 - 1982)

Postdoc

Max-Planck-Institute for Developmental Biology, Molecular Biology (1982 - 1985)

Honors & Recognition

• MacArthur Fellowship
  JD and KT MacArthur Foundation (1992)
• Humboldt Research Prize
  Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany (2007)
• Corresponding Member
  Austrian Academy of Sciences (1997)
• Elected Fellow
  American Association for the Advancement of Science (1997)