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, professor of evolution and ecology and director of the , has been elected to the  for his exceptional contribution to his field. Coop is one of nearly announced by the academy on April 23. He joins as academy members.

Coop is a renowned evolutionary geneticist who has received wide recognition from UC Davis and beyond. At UC Davis, Coop received a 2014 College of Biology Research Prize, was a Chancellor’s Fellow from 2015-19, and received a 2019 Graduate and Postdoctoral Mentorship Award.

“Science is a team effort,” said Coop. “This recognition is a credit to everyone who’s worked in our lab over the years, and I'm so pleased on their behalf.”

Using genetics to reveal how populations evolve

As an evolutionary geneticist, Coop studies how genetics and environmental variation shape populations. He uses a combination of mathematical modeling and data analysis to tackle questions about the causes and consequences of genetic variation within individuals, populations and species.

“Understanding human genetic variation is key to understanding who we are, how we came to be, and how we moved around the world and adapted to our environment,” said Coop. “Our lab has learned a lot about how humans spread around the world and adapted to different environments they encountered, which has helped develop a more nuanced view of the interaction between genetics and the environment.”

Coop has been involved in a number of groundbreaking studies in human evolution, including a 2006 study that was chosen as one of for revealing that humans and Neanderthals diverged nearly half a million years ago. Other breakthroughs from Coop’s lab include a 2013 study which showed that almost everyone of European descent can trace their ancestry back to a common set of ancestors who lived around 1,000 years ago, and a 2020 study showing how Neanderthal DNA is slowly being purged from the human genome as a result of natural selection.

“One of the most exciting things in our research at the moment is that we’re starting to be able to identify how natural selection has impacted many parts of the human genome simultaneously,” said Coop. “This will allow us to create a really refined view of how selection and genetic drift and other evolutionary forces have shaped the past and present distribution of genetic variation.”

In addition to humans, Coop’s lab studies evolutionary questions in a range of organisms, including , how , and how genomics and climate interact to prevent the spread of African honey bees at high latitudes.

From physics to biology

Coop originally trained as a physicist but made the switch to biology during graduate school.

“I was thinking about doing a Ph.D., and one of my lecturers said: ‘If you’re interested in physics for physics’ sake, then by all means be a physicist, but if you’re interested in working on big questions with interesting math, you should think about working in biology,’” said Coop.

“I’d always been interested in genetics and evolution, and suddenly I saw this whole vista of possibilities open up in front of me. From that moment, I never really looked back, and it’s been a wonderful journey.”

About the academy

Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is both an honorary society that recognizes and celebrates the excellence of its members and an independent research institution that conducts multidisciplinary, nonpartisan research. Members are nominated and elected by their peers in recognition of their leadership in the arts and sciences, business, philanthropy and public affairs.