Walter Kistler

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Walter Kistler : biography

1918 –

On his concern for the future of humanity, Kistler has written the following:

“When I consider what has happened in the years since I was a boy […] we have deciphered the genetic code and are now able to study the innermost structure of a human being. We have invented the transistor and have developed a computer-based civilization replete with computer games and interactive television. We have even conquered space and humans have walked on the moon. However, few people are aware of the most drastic development that has taken place in humanity’s condition, a development of portentous consequences. From the status of a child or teenager, humanity suddenly became an adult in the 20th century. Science and technology have given us so much power that we now control our own destiny. A position of control has its consequences. It entails great responsibility. Unfortunately, we humans don’t seem to be aware of this.”

The Kistler Prize, created in 1999, includes a cash award of US $100,000 and a gold medallion, and is awarded annually to recognize original contributions “to the understanding of the connection between the human genome and human society, especially those contributions stemming from research conducted with courage and conviction despite opposition from peers or the public.” The recipients have been:

  • 2000 Dr. Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University, for the introduction of biological thought into the social sciences to create the field of sociobiology.
  • 2001 Dr. Richard Dawkins, Oxford University, for his work in the ethology of the gene, redirecting the focus of the “levels of selection” debate from the individual animal as the unit of evolution to the genes.
  • 2002 Dr. Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Stanford School of Medicine, for his work tracing historical migrations by analyzing the genetic differences between humans living today.
  • 2003 Dr. Arthur R. Jensen, University of California, Berkeley, for scientific research on human intelligence, establishing the genetic basis for individual differences in intelligence.
  • 2004 Dr. Vincent M. Sarich, University of California, Berkeley, for discoveries in molecular dating, determining that humans and the great apes diverged much more recently than previously believed.
  • 2005 Dr. Thomas J. Bouchard Jr., Minnesota Center for Twin and Adoption Research, for research regarding human individual differences caused by genetic and environmental influences.
  • 2006 Dr. Doreen Kimura, Simon Fraser University, for research and cataloguing of sex differences in cognition and developing proximate and evolutionary explanations for many of them.
  • 2007 Dr. Spencer Wells, National Geographic Genographic Project, for a body of work in the science of population genetics, culminating in a five-year effort to map humanity’s genetic journey to populate the planet.
  • 2008 Dr. J. Craig Venter, J. Craig Venter Institute, for pioneering work in genomic research including rapid gene discovery, the first sequencing of a genome of a living species, and the first publication of a genome sequence of one human individual.
  • 2009 Dr. Svante Pääbo, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, for a body of work with ancient DNA, beginning in 1984 with the demonstration of DNA survival in a 2,400-year-old mummy and leading to a draft version of the complete Neanderthal genome.
  • 2010 Dr. Leroy Hood, Institute for Systems Biology, for creating the technological foundation for genomics and proteomics through the invention of five groundbreaking instruments and for explicating the potentialities of genome and proteome research into the future.

The Walter P. Kistler Book Award, established in 2003, recognizes authors who make important contributions to the public’s understanding of factors that may impact the long-term future of humanity. The award includes a cash prize of US $10,000 and a certificate. The recipients have been:

  • 2003 Dr. Gregory Stock for Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future, about technologies that will enable parents to make choices about their children’s appearance, capabilities, and health risks.
  • 2004 Dr. Spencer Wells for The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey, which explains the science that enabled Dr. Wells to trace the genealogy of humankind by focusing on genetic markers on the Y-chromosome.
  • 2005 Dr. Steven Pinker for The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, addressing the fears associated with acknowledging a universal, biologically based human nature.
  • 2006 Dr. William H. Calvin for A Brain for All Seasons: Human Evolution and Abrupt Climate Change, which addresses the broad sweep of hominid history and the likely impacts to it of abrupt climate change.
  • 2007 Dr. Eric Chaisson for Epic of Evolution: Seven Ages of the Cosmos, which leads the reader through all known forms of evolution, for all of known time, partitioning the arrow of time over billions of years into seven epochs.
  • 2008 Dr. Christopher B. Stringer for Homo britannicus: The Incredible Story of Human Life in Britain, which explicates the epic history of life in Britain dating as far back as 700,000 years and the role of climate change in at least seven failed efforts at human colonization.
  • 2009 Dr. David Archer for The Long Thaw: How Humans Are Changing the Next 100,000 Years of Earth’s Climate, which discusses the scientific realities of humankind’s continuing increases in the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.