Molecular Biology and Evolution (MBE) is pleased to announcethat Masatoshi Nei recently published a memoir entitled “My Life as a Molecular Evolutionist” from the Institute of Genomics and Evolutionary Medicine, Temple University Philadelphia, PA. The purpose of this memoir is to discuss the origin and development of the discipline of molecular evolution from the point of view of a cofounder of MBE. He was born in Japan in 1931 and immigrated to the United States in 1969 to do the work on molecular evolution. Since then, most of his professional work was done in the United States. In this memoir, he discusses how he grew up in Japan and how he ended up with working on molecular evolution, including some of enjoyment and grief in conducting the work. He emphasizes the importance of working with collaborators and indicates that many of his studies were done in these collaborations. The memoir is about 200 pages long and consists of 9 chapters and additional sections (see Box 1).
Contents of Nei memoir
Preface
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chronological Timeline
Chapter 2. My Childhood
Chapter 3. University Education
University of Miyazaki
Kyoto University
Chapter 4. Studies in the USA
University of California at Davis
North Carolina State University
Chapter 5. National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba, Japan
Marriage and Children
Kimura’s Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution
Use of Computers in Genetics
International Congress of Genetics in Tokyo and Kyoto
Chapter 6. Brown University in the USA
Adapting to the American Way of Life
Theory of Genetic Distance
Chapter 7. University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution vs. The Theory of Mutation-Driven Evolution
Gene Genealogy, Pseudogenes, and Neutral theory
Human Evolution
Meetings in Texas
Visit to India: A Mysterious Country
Moscow and Other European Cities
China and Sweden
Titisee Meeting in Germany
Natural Selection at the Major Histocompatibility (MHC) Loci
Book on Molecular Population Genetics and Evolution
Neighbor-Joining Method of constructing Phylogenetic Trees
Gordon Research Conferences
Founding a New Journal called “Molecular Biology and Evolution (MBE)”
International and Domestic Meetings
Chapter 8. Pennsylvania State University
Work on Committees
Molecular Evolution and Phylogenetic Trees
Australia: a Continent of Isolation
Origins of the Japanese Population
Official Start of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE)
MEGA: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis Software
Molecular Evolution and Phylogenetic Trees
Australia: a Continent of Isolation
Origins of the Japanese Population
Trip to Northern Greece and Hungary
Sabbatical leave in Japan, 1997
Penn State—SMBE Symposium on Molecular and Genomic Evolution
Another trip to China
Meeting with the emperor and other recognitions
Chapter 9. Temple University
A Mild Form of Stroke and Temple University
Symposium on Molecular Evolution at Temple University
My Work at Temple University
Epilogue and Acknowledgements
References
Index
Masatoshi Nei’s studies of evolutionary problems started from an investigation on the origin of genetic variation in populations, but as genetics has grown up into molecular biology, he has also become a molecular evolutionist. Working alone or with his students and collaborators, he continuously developed various new concepts of evolution and new statistical methods. Early on in these studies, he understood the importance of using computers in biology, bioinformatics, and genomics. Because of these researches, his work is widely appreciated. For those who are interested, the memoir is now available for purchase at the following website: https://press.arctangent.com.
Publication of Masatoshi Nei’s Memoir “My Life as a Molecular Evolutionist”
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