12 Facts About Motoo Kimura

Motoo Kimura was a Japanese biologist best known for introducing the neutral theory of molecular evolution in 1968.

Motoo Kimura became one of the most influential theoretical population geneticists.

Motoo Kimura is remembered in genetics for his innovative use of diffusion equations to calculate the probability of fixation of beneficial, deleterious, or neutral alleles.

Motoo Kimura joined Kihara's laboratory after the war, where he studied the introduction of foreign chromosomes into plants and learned the foundations of population genetics.

In 1949, Motoo Kimura joined the National Institute of Genetics in Mishima, Shizuoka.

Motoo Kimura received his PhD in 1956, before returning to Japan.

Motoo Kimura worked on a wide spectrum of theoretical population genetics problems, many of them in collaboration with Takeo Maruyama.

Motoo Kimura contributed an important review article on the ongoing controversy over genetic load in 1961.

Motoo Kimura spent the rest of his life developing and defending the neutral theory.

Motoo Kimura produced a monograph on the neutral theory in 1983, The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution, and worked to promote the theory through popular writings such as My Views on Evolution, a book that became a best-seller in Japan.

In 1992, Motoo Kimura received the Darwin Medal from the Royal Society, and the following year he was made a Foreign Member of the Royal Society.

Motoo Kimura suffered from progressive weakening caused by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis later in life.