Evolutionary Biologist Lee Alan Dugatkin to Discuss His Research and Book “How to Tame a Fox and Build a Dog” on April 5

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Lee Alan Dugatkin, professor and distinguished university scholar in the department of biology at the University of Louisville, will discuss the research that served as the basis of his 2017 book “How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog)” for the Sinauer Associates/Oxford University Press Distinguished Scientist Lecture on Friday, April 5 at 4 p.m. in S331 Integrated Learning Center (ILC).

During the presentation, which is free and open to the public, Dugatkin will explain a seven-decades-old research project that started in the Soviet Union that had the goal of breeding foxes to make them more tame. As the foxes became more tame through artificial selection, their physiology changed and they became more dog-like in appearance. This project, which continues today, provides insights into the evolution, genetics, neurobiology and hormonal control involved in domestication of animals. Dugatkin will also discuss the difficulties the project’s researchers faced studying genetics in a totalitarian regime wherein genetic research was considered suspect.

Dugatkin, who studies the evolution of social behavior and the history of science, has published over 150 articles on behavior and evolution in journals including Nature, The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and The Proceedings of The Royal Society of London. He is the author of seven books – including three books on the evolution of cooperation – and two textbooks.