Affiliation:
1. School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
Abstract
Professor Bryan Clarke was a world-leading evolutionary geneticist. He combined theoretical understanding of the principles of evolutionary biology, an appreciation of the process of molecular evolution, and a love of fieldwork, through which he studied the genetic diversity of wild populations and the patterns of natural selection that operated on them. Bryan's primary interest was in studying evolution in the wild. In trying to observe evolution in action, geneticists focus on genetic polymorphisms, in which different genetic types (‘morphs’) coexist in the same wild population. In understanding how such variation is generated, and how it is maintained, we gain insight into the process of evolution as it has operated over the course of life on Earth.