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Adrian Melott Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas Founder of Kansas Citizens for Science Workshop Title: The Evolution of Science Curricula

Biographical Sketch

Adrian Melott received his Ph.D. at the University of Texas in 1981. He was one of the pioneers in simulation of the formation of structure in a dark-matter dominated Universe.  In 1996 he was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society "For groundbreaking studies of the origin and evolution of cosmic structure", and in 2002 received the APS Joseph A. Burton Forum Award “to recognize outstanding contributions to public understanding or resolution of issues involving the interface of physics and society.” He was organizer and founder of Kansas Citizens for Science, which played a major role in restoring evolutionary biology to public science standards.

Recently he has done research in “astrobiophysics”, publishing on the possible role of gamma-ray bursts in terrestrial mass extinctions, as well as long-term biodiversity fluctuations. He is currently Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Kansas.  In 2007 he was named Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science “For distinguished contributions to cosmological large-scale structure, for organizing public support for teaching evolution, and for interdisciplinary research on astrophysical impacts on the biosphere.”