Background
David Hillis was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1958, the son of William Hillis, an epidemiologist, and Aryge Briggs Hillis, a biostatistician.
Zoologist evolutionary biologist
David Hillis was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1958, the son of William Hillis, an epidemiologist, and Aryge Briggs Hillis, a biostatistician.
In 1980 Hillis graduated from Baylor University with a Bachelor of Surgery degree in biology, followed in 1983, 1984, and 1985 with Master of Surgery, the Master of Philisophy, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Biological Science from the University of Kansas, specializing in molecular evolution and systematics.
He is best known for his studies of molecular evolution, phylogeny, and vertebrate systematics. He created the popular Hillis Plot depiction of the evolutionary tree of life. Hillis lived his early years in Denmark, Belgian Congo, India, and the United States, where he developed his interests in biology and biodiversity.
He has two sons, Erec and Jonathan.
During this time Hillis developed molecular approaches for reconstructing the evolutionary history of organisms, or phylogeny, with a particular emphasis on the relationships of amphibians. He also made significant contributions to the understanding of hybridization, molecular processes of evolutionary change, and statistical analysis of biological phylogenies.
He continued this research as an Assistant Professor at the University of Miami from 1985–1987, and then moved to the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin in 1987. His co-authored book Molecular Systematics was instrumental in developing the field of phylogenetic analysis, and he is a co-author of two of the leading college textbooks on biology (Life: The Science of Biology, and Principles of Life ).
Doctor Hillis was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship in 1999.
He has served as President of the Society for the Study of Evolution, and President of the Society of Systematic Biologists. At the University of Texas, he has served as Director of the School of Biological Sciences, Director of the Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Director of the Dean"s Scholars Honors Program of the College of Natural Sciences, and as Chair of the Faculty Council.
National Academy of Sciences. American Academy of Arts and Sciences.