Pere Alberch: Originator of EvoDevo

Developmental structuring of phenotypic variation: A case study with a cellular automata model of ontogeny

“…de la Rosa 2014; Jernvall & Jung, 2000;Laubichler, Prohaska, & Stadler, 2018;Porto, Schmelter, VandeBerg, Marroig, & Cheverud, 2016;Reiss et al, 2008;Salazar-Ciudad, 2006). This entire process we can refer to as the generative properties of the genotype-phenotype map.…”

Conceptual Change in Biology

“…Alberch later recorded his own impressions of these discussions (Alberch 1995, reprinted in Rasskin-Gutman andDe Renzi 2009). The most important event was to meet Lewis Wolpert.…”

“…He wrote important papers on limb and tongue evolution, topics close to my own research interests, and in retrospect his creative work is seen as seminal and prescient; he has been credited as a central figure in the origin of Evo-devo (Reiss et al 2009; Rasskin-Gutman and De Renzi 2009). He had moved from my lab directly to an assistant professorship at Harvard, without a post-doc, on the strength of his promise and some noteworthy papers .…”

Homoplasy, a Moving Target

“…This is the kernel that eventually became the Dahlem conference of 1981. Alberch later recorded his own impressions of these discussions (Alberch 1995, reprinted in Rasskin-Gutman andDe Renzi 2009 …”

“…Pere was one of the early figures in Evo-devo research and his lab was an exciting place for graduate students and post-docs (such as Neil Shubin, John Reiss, Annie Burke, Chris Rose and Gerd Müller). He wrote important papers on limb and tongue evolution, topics close to my own research interests, and in retrospect his creative work is seen as seminal and prescient; he has been credited as a central figure in the origin of Evo-devo (Reiss et al 2009;Rasskin-Gutman and De Renzi 2009). His star burned brightly, but he and his research were difficult to categorize-not sufficiently molecular, not sufficiently herpetological, not mainline development-and he was denied tenure at Harvard.…”