简介
Professor Nevo is one of the leaders of evolutionary biology, and among the founders of modern evolutionary theory (Citation from Israel Prize of Life Sciences 2016). He is a Professor of Evolutionary biology in the University of Haifa, Israel. He established and directed the Institute of Evolution (IOE, 1973-2008) and the International Graduate Center of Evolution,( IGSE) (2004-2008). Both the IOE and IGSE are world unique. His scientific career involved interdisciplinary studies of biodiversity evolution, adaptation, and speciation across life based on the science he advanced of Evolutionary Functional Ecological Genetics and Genomics across life from viruses and bacteria through fungi, plants, animals and humans. Nevo published 1500+ scientific papers, 1000+ peer reviewed, and 37 books, he was cited 61303 times with an h index of 116 and i10 index of 858. Since 2017 he was cited 14962, h index 53, i10 index 352 (Google Scholar). He contributed substantially to the understanding of genetic diversity, correlates and predictors of genetic diversity in nature, under diverse environmental stresses (chemical, climatic, thermal, biotic, and atomic). His studies involve genes, genomes, phenomes, populations, species, and ecosystems of bacteria, fungi, plants, animals, and humans focusing on the structure, function, and causation of genetic diversity in nature at local, regional and global scales. His major models of biodiversity evolution include: Evolution of blind subterranean mammals (1948-ongoing); Evolution of wild cereals (1975-ongoing); Evolution of Marine organisms as pollution indicators (1980s); Evolution in action comprising both adaptive evolution and sympatric speciation at “Evolution Canyons” model, caused by interslope microclimatic divergence at four microsites in Israel, he dubbed the “Israeli Galapagos“, and extended to “Evolution Plateau” and “Evolution Slope”, Geologic-Edaphic microsites in the Upper Galilee (1990- ongoing); Evolution of Dead Sea Fungi (He discovered with Prof Wasser) (1997-ongoing), Evolution of Chimpanzees recently in the Mali Savanna mirroring early human Evolution (2010-ongoing) were developed with Itai Roffman and colleagues. He has conducted local (in four natural laboratories of “Evolution Canyons” in Israel), regional (in Israel and the Near East Fertile Crescent as natural genetic laboratories), and global (across all continents as genetic labs) genetic studies, inter-disciplinarily linking genetics and ecology in terms of ecological -genetics and ecological -genomics, bridging genotypes and phenotypes, integrating molecular and organismal biology, organism-environment relationships, and elucidating the patterns and causation of genetic diversity in nature (see full and sub-lists of publications at http://evolution.Haifa.ac.il). These studies link environmental stress with the level of genetic polymorphism in proteins and DNA across life ( viruses, bacteria, fungi, plants, animals, and humans) and the entire planet (all continents). Nevo established the Environmental Theory of Genetic Diversity proposing that, generally, genetic polymorphism AT ALL SCALES, LOCAL, REGIONAL AND GLOBAL, AND ACROSS LIFE, is largely positively correlated with and predictable by environmental stress, abiotic and biotic. The “Evolution Canyon” (EC) model initiated by Nevo and dubbed by him the “Israeli Galapagos”, became a classical model of biodiversity evolution at a microscale caused by sharp microclimatic interslope divergence confronting biotic representation (biomes) of two continents, Africa and Europa. The 250 papers and four books published on the EC model involve diverse fundamental problems of evolutionary biology. These include biodiversity evolution , genetic polymorphism, transposon and retrotransposon dynamics and their effects on genome size, DNA repair; mutation, recombination, gene conversion rates, adaptation, speciation, and methylation, associated with ecological stress, lateral transfer, splice variation, wide genome gene expression; and the twin evolutionary processes of adaptation and incipient sympatric speciation across life from bacteria through fungi, plants, and animals from invertebrates to mammals, including humans.
In application, Nevo advanced a novel genetic methodology to safeguard the quality of marine environments (documented in 25 scientific papers). Likewise, he substantiated the idea that wild progenitors of cereal and other cultivars harbor rich genetic resources that should be conserved in situ and ex situ (documented in 420 + papers and a book). They represent the best hope for future genetic crop improvement, advancing the second genetic green revolution, thereby guaranteeing the increase and stabilization of world food production, which is of cardinal importance, particularly in a world population that is still exploding. In practice, he mapped, with colleagues candidate genes and QTLs related to adaptation and domestic
