Dr. W. Ford Doolittle (born 1942 in Urbana, Illinois) is a biochemist.
As of 2005[update], he is a professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.[1] He received his BA in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard University in 1963 and his PhD from Stanford University in 1967.
Since joining the biochemistry department at Dalhousie in 1971, Dr. Doolittle has made significant contributions to the study of cyanobacteria, found evidence for the endosymbiont hypothesis of chloroplasts' origins, developed a theoretical basis for the initial evolution of eukaryotes and shown the importance of horizontal gene transfer in prokaryotic evolution.
In 1981, Dr. Doolittle received some level of notoriety for his article in The CoEvolution Quarterly entitled "Is Nature Really Motherly?". A sharp rebuttal of J. E. Lovelock's formulation of the Gaia Theory, Doolittle's article is often cited by Lovelock's critics.
Because of his philosophical musings on the non-existence of an all-encompassing Tree of Life, Doolittle has occasionally been cited on Intelligent Design blogs. However, though Doolittle argues that a bifurcating tree is not an adequate metaphor for the evolution of life on earth, he is not a supporter of Intelligent Design. A single common ancestor and tree relating all of life on earth is not a necessary component of the theory of descent with modification, the essence of evolution.
He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.[2]
In addition to his contributions to evolutionary biology, Doolittle is an artist who studies at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.