People

Eric Davidson

Eric Davidson is the Norman Chandler Professor of Cell Biology with the California Institute of Technology. He received his B.A. at the University of Pennsylvania (1958), and his Ph.D. from Rockefeller University (1963). A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Awardee of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, he has published more the 400 articles and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Developmental Biology (2007). The major focus of his research is in gene networks that control development and their evolution. Most of his work has been carried out on sea urchin embryos, which provide key experimental advantages such as easy gene transfer technology. His group pursues integrated, "vertical" mode of experimental analysis with experiments directed at all levels of biological organization, extending the transcription factor-DNA interactions that control spatial and temporal expression of specific genes in the embryo to the systems level analysis of large regulatory networks.