Finch researchers win Kyoto Prize

linkurl:Peter;http://www.princeton.edu/eeb/people/display_person.xml?netid=prgrant&display=All and linkurl:Rosemary Grant,;http://www.princeton.edu/eeb/people/display_person.xml?netid=rgrant&display=All emeritus professors at Princeton University who were the first to document natural selection in action, have won the 2009 Kyoto Prize in the category of Basic Sciences for their work on evolutionary adaptations in response to environmental flux.

Image: Denise Applewhite Princeton University

"I can't think of any other scientists who deserve it more," said linkurl:Kenneth Petren,;http://bioweb.ad.uc.edu/faculty/petren/ a former postdoc of Peter Grant and now a professor at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, citing "their long term commitment to unraveling some very complex problems" in evolutionary biology. Following in Darwin's footsteps, the Grants have spent 35 years studying the finches he discovered on the Galápagos Islands during his Beagle tour. In perhaps their most famous contribution to the evolutionary literature, the Grants demonstrated how, in just a few short generations, the beak size and shape of ground finches (genus Geospiza) transformed as a consequence...