Jon Seger

Jon Allen Seger is an American evolutionary

ecologist, and Distinguished Professor of Biology at Jon Seger
the University of Utah.[1] He helped develop the theory Nationality American
of bet-hedging in biology. His work has appeared in Alma mater UC Santa Barbara
leading scientific journals such as Nature, Science, Harvard University
Nature Genetics, Molecular Biology and Evolution, Known for Biological bet-hedging
Journal of Evolutionary Biology, as well as popular
Awards MacArthur Fellowship (1987)
magazines such as Scientific American.[2]
AAAS Fellow (2014)

Scientific career
Biography Fields Ecology
Genetics
Dr. Seger attended UC Santa Barbara for his
undergraduate studies, where he received a B.A. in Institutions National Museum of Natural
English in 1969. Following college, he worked at the History
University of Sussex
National Museum of Natural History on an assignment
to help the museum establish public environmental University of Michigan
Princeton University
education programs.[1][3] He then enrolled at Harvard
University of Utah
University, where he received his EdM in 1972 and his
PhD in Biology in 1980. Much of his early work Thesis Models for the Evolution of
concerned models of sex ratio evolution and a variety Phenotypic Responses to
of social insects (such as the Vespidae wasps). This Genotypic Correlations That
work often took the form of mathematical models built Arise in Finite Populations
from 'first principles' (such as his 1986 paper written (1980)
with Robert Trivers). Following his PhD he held Doctoral Robert Trivers
postdoctoral positions at the University of Sussex advisor
(1981-1982), the University of Michigan (1982-1983),
and Princeton University (1983–86).[4] He joined the faculty at the University of Utah in 1986.

Career
His latest work concerns applications of coalescent theory to population genetics, particularly the mtDNA
of whale lice, although members of his lab work on a variety of applied and theoretical topics that range
from evolutionary ecology and genetics to mathematical biology and coalescent theory. In addition, he
recently received an NSF grant to continue his work on the so-called "missing heritability" problem. His
whale lice work had already shown that a genome should have many weakly deleterious mutations of
small effect taken on their own but potentially large effect when taken together. This implies that the
"missing" genes sought by, for example, human geneticists aren't actually missing: there are simply a lot
more genes have a very small effect on fitness by themselves but have can have a large effect when the
effects are combined.

Awards
1987 MacArthur Fellows Program[5]

Works
Seger J, Stubblefield JW (2002) "Models of sex ratio evolution" (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=kv-UU7uew5oC&dq=Jon+Seger&pg=PA2). In Sex Ratios: Concepts and Research
Methods (ed ICW Hardy), pp 2–25. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-66578-0
Johnson KP, Seger J (2001) "Elevated rates of nonsynonymous substitution in island birds".
Molecular Biology and Evolution 18:874-881.
Morehead SA, Seger J, Feener DH Jr, Brown BV (2001) "Evidence for a cryptic species
complex in the ant parasitoid Apocephalus paraponerae (Diptera: Phoridae)". Evolutionary
Ecology Research 3:273-284.
Branscomb A, Seger J, White RL (2000) "Evolution of odorant receptors expressed in
mammalian testes". Genetics 156:785-787.[6]
Seger J (1999) "Is sex in the details?" Journal of Evolutionary Biology 12:1050-1052.
Eckhart, Vincent M., Seger, Jon "Phenological and Development Costs of Male Sexual
Function in Hermaphroditic Plants" (https://books.google.com/books?id=itQ_LsAkVPMC&dq
=Jon+Seger&pg=PA195), Life history evolution in plants, Editors Timo Olavi Vuorisalo, Pia
Kristina Mutikainen, Springer, 1999, pp 195–213. Kluwer. ISBN 978-0-7923-5818-3
Herrick G, Seger J (1999) "Imprinting and paternal genome elimination in insects". In
Genomic Imprinting: An Interdisciplinary Approach (Results and Problems in Cell
Differentiation, vol. 25) (ed R Ohlsson) pp 41–71. Springer-Verlag.
Berrigan DB, Seger J (1998) "Information and allometry". Evolutionary Ecology 12:535-541.
Seger J, Stubblefield JW (1996) "Optimization and adaptation". In Adaptation (ed GV
Lauder, MR Rose) pp 93–123. Academic Press.
Seger J, Eckhart VM (1996) "Evolution of sexual systems and sex allocation in plants when
growth and reproduction overlap". Proc R Soc Lond B 263:833-841.
Richards MH, Packer L, Seger J (1995) "Unexpected patterns of parentage and relatedness
in a primitively eusocial bee". Nature 373:239-241.

References
1. "Jon Seger's Research Interests" (https://web.archive.org/web/20100609193500/http://www.
biology.utah.edu/faculty2.php?inum=2). Archived from the original (http://www.biology.utah.e
du/faculty2.php?inum%3D2) on 2010-06-09. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
2. "If mutations occur at random over the entire sequence of a species' genome, how can a
complex organ such as an eye evolve? How can all the mutations that direct the
development of that organ be concentrated in the right places?" (http://www.scientificameric
an.com/article.cfm?id=experts-random-mutations). Scientific American.
3. "Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution 1970" (https://archive.org/stream/smithsoniany
ear7071smit/smithsonianyear7071smit_djvu.txt). archive.org. City of Washington:
 Smithsonian Institution Press. 30 June 1970. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
4. "Jon Seger" (https://www.macfound.org/fellows/316/). MacArthur Foundation. 1 July 1987.
5. "Fellows by Domain and Area (OLD) - MacArthur Foundation" (https://web.archive.org/web/
20100814054923/http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.1301971/k.242F/Fellows
_by_Domain_and_Area_OLD.htm). Archived from the original (http://www.macfound.org/sit
e/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.1301971/k.242F/Fellows_by_Domain_and_Area_OLD.htm) on 2010-
08-14. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
6. "Issue Highlights" (http://www.genetics.org/cgi/content/full/184/2/NP). Genetics. 184 (2).
February 2010.

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