John Tyler Bonner's Slime Mold Essay

John Tyler Bonner, one of the world’s most leading experts on slime molds, was born on May 12, 1920 in New York City. He is currently the George M. Moffett Professor Emeritus of biology in Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. Mr. Bonner received his B.S (magna cum laude with highest honors in biology), his M.A and Ph.D. from Harvard University 1. Bonner’s interest of study was evolution; he studied this through cellular slime molds 1. In 1937 Bonner started studying at Harvard University with a major in biology. During his freshman year in college Bonner took a Botany course, which was taught by William H. Weston 2. He later decided to do a research on slime molds to understand evolution, under Mr. Weston. He also made several films of the slime molds as an undergraduate student. He believed they exhibit a great form of intelligence and self- sacrifice. When ever they are separated they will pull themselves back together and …show more content…
His autobiography, Life Cycle: Reflection of an Evolutionary Biologist, also won an award in 2002 for ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year. He also holds many honorary fellows, in the American Association for the Advancement of Science 3. He was also awarded two times Guggenheim Fellowship for Natural Sciences, US & Canada in 1957 and 1971 for his contribution. His major contribution towards biology was making a model organism of Dictyostelium discoideum, which is important when examining some question in experimental biology. Dictyostelium discoideum is known for its unicellular and multicellular phases and serves as an important model organism in variety of