Skip to main content Skip to navigation

E.Paul Catts Memorial Lecture

nijhoutThe speaker in 2014 was Dr. Frederik Nijhout.

Dr. H. Frederik Nijhout obtained his B.S. in Biology at Notre Dame where he investigated aspects of mating behavior associated with reproductive isolation in several Aedes species under the mentorship of Dr. George B. Craig, Jr. He earned the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Biology at Harvard University.

Thereafter, he was a post-doctoral Fellow in the Department of Zoology at the University of Washington and a Staff Fellow in the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. In 1977, he joined the faculty at Duke University as Assistant Professor of Zoology and was appointed to Professor in 1987.

Nijhout is internationally recognized for his research on elucidating the regulatory processes involved in postembryonic development in a wide range of insect species. His interests include the role of hormones in controlling alternate developmental pathways, regulation of body size, the evolution of wing patterns in butterflies, and the genetics and evolution of complex traits. Nijhout has received several awards and honors including election to Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is a recipient of the Founders’ Memorial Award by the Entomological Society of America.