James Crow
Professor Emeritus of Genetics
Address: 2430 Genetics/Biotech
Telephone: 263-4438
E-mail: jfcrow@wisc.edu
Research Description: Much of Professor Crow’s research has been in the area of theoretical population genetics, but he has often ventured into the laboratory. Over a career that has spanned more than 50 years, Jim and his collaborators have studied a variety of traits in Drosophila, dissected the genetics of DDT resistance, measured the effects of minor mutations on the overall fitness of populations, described the behavior of mutations that do not play the selection game by Darwin’s rules, and investigated many other subjects. His theoretical work has touched virtually every important subject in population genetics. Jim developed the concept of genetic load, has contributed to the theory of random drift in small populations, has studied of the effects of non-random mating and age-structured populations, and has considered the question, “What good is sex?” He also developed ingenious ways to estimate inbreeding in human populations by making use of the way in which surnames are “inherited,” and is a world expert on the genetic effects of low level ionizing radiation In addition to his many research publications, Professor Crow has published many reviews and appreciations of the work of his colleagues. Finally, his book on population genetics, written with Motoo Kimura, is a combination of textbook and monograph a major contribution to the literature of population genetics research and still the classic in its field.
Dr. Crow is no longer accepting graduate students.
Teaching
Professor Crow is a famous teacher of both undergraduates and graduates. For many alumnae of the University of Wisconsin, the class that stands out as the most stimulating, the most satisfying, simply the best, of all the courses they took in college, is the General Genetics course they took from Dr. Crow. Students remember the amazing clarity and simplicity of Dr. Crow’s lectures. He was able to explain in a straightforward way the logic of a mathematical argument that other professors teaching the same course dared not even discuss. Students remember Jim’s disarming human qualities and can still quote some of his jokes after many years. Above all else they remember Jim’s magical ability to reveal the allure of science — there’s so much to learn, and learning brings so much pleasure. Jim’s influence as a teacher extends far beyond his classroom in Madison. His Genetics Notes – virtually everyone calls it “Crow’s Notes” – became the foundation for genetics courses around the world. It was translated into many languages: Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Dutch, Yugoslav. Many students bought Crow’s Notes even when their professor did not assign it, because the Notes were written with such economy and clarity. They made genetics accessible to those who were otherwise mystified by their professors and intimidated by their assigned texts.
Here is a list of Dr. Crow’s former graduate students and postdocs. It was compiled informally, and it is probably incomplete (corrections are welcome; please email them to webmaster@genetics.wisc.edu).
- Seymour Abrahamson
- Kenichi Aoki
- Bruce Baker
- Jack Bennett
- James Bull
- Yong Jai Chung
- Loring Craymer
- Carter Denniston
- William Engels
- Joe Felsenstein
- Lawrence Friedman
- Ove Frydenberg
- Sasha Gimelfarb
- Rayla Greenberg Temin
- Thomas Gregg
- Dan Hartl
- Yuichiro Hiraizumi
- Branch Howe
- Wen Hsiung Li
- Elaine Johansen Mange
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- Warwick Kerr
- Motoo Kimura
- Alexey Kondrashov
- Russell Lande
- Chuck Langley
- Cathy Laurie
- William R. Lee
- Terry Lyttle
- Russell Malmberg
- Arthur Mange
- Etan Markowitz
- Takeo Maruyama
- Muneo Matsuda
- Joyce Mitchell
- Michael Moody
- Newton E. Morton
- Terumi Mukai
- Thomas Nagylaki
- Taisei Nomura
- Ohmi Ohnishi
- Paulo Otto
- Janardan Pandey
- Patrick Phillips
- Michael Rose
- Larry Sandler
- Edward L. Schwartz
- Frank Seto
- Michael Simmons
- Samuel Skinner
- Robert Tamarin
- W. Y. Tan
- Chung I Wu
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Public Service
Professor Crow has generously contributed his talents to so many good works in the university, the profession, and the community that one wonders how he has managed to achieve so much as a geneticist. He chaired the Department of Medical Genetics for 5 years and the Laboratory of Genetics (that is, Genetics plus Medical Genetics) for a total of 8 years. He also served as Acting Dean of the UW Medical School for 2 years. He has been President of the Genetics Society of America and the American Society of Human Genetics. Jim has served at the national level as a member of the General Advisory Committee to the Director of NIH and of the executive council of the National Committee on Radiation Protection; has chaired the NIH Genetics Study Section and the NIH Mammalian Genetics Study Section; and has chaired several committees for the National Academy of Sciences including, most recently, a committee to study forensic uses of DNA fingerprinting. In addition, Jim for many years played viola for the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and served as President of the Madison Civic Music Society and of the Madison Symphony Orchestra. Recently, he led a fund-raising drive to establish an endowment for the Pro Arte String Quartet.
Professor Crow is recognized as a leader and statesman of science. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, The American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the World Academy of Art and Science. He is an honorary Fellow of the Japan Academy and a Fellow of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters.
Representative Publications:
Crow JF. 2010. Wright and Fisher on inbreeding and random
drift. Genetics. 2010 Mar;184(3):609-11.
Crow JF. 2010. On
epistasis: why it is unimportant in polygenic directional selection. Philos
Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. Apr 27;365(1544):1241-4.
Crow JF. 2009. Mayr, mathematics and the study of evolution.
J Biol.;8(2):13. Epub 2009 Feb 23.
Crow JF. 2008. Maintaining evolvability. J Genet. Dec;87(4):349-53.
Crow JF. 2008. Just and unjust: E. E. Just (1883-1941). Genetics.
Aug;179(4):1735-40.
Crow JF. 2008. Mid-century controversies in population
genetics. Annu Rev Genet.;42:1-16.
Crow JF. 2008 .Commentary: Haldane and beanbag genetics. Int
J Epidemiol. Jun;37(3):442-5.
Crow JF. 2007. Haldane, Bailey, Taylor and
recombinant-inbred lines. Genetics. Jun;176(2):729-32.
Gulisija D, Crow JF. 2007. Inferring purging from pedigree data. Evolution. May;61(5):1043-51.
Crow JF, Lindsley D, Lucchesi J. 2006. Edward Novitski:
Drosophila virtuoso. Genetics. Oct;174(2):549-53.
Crow JF. 2006. Age and sex effects on human mutation rates:
an old problem with new complexities. J Radiat Res (Tokyo).;47 Suppl B:B75-82.
Crow JF. 2006. H. J. Muller and the "competition
hoax". Genetics. Jun;173(2):511-4.
Crow, J.F. 2006. Motoo Kimura, 1924-1994. Handbook of Philosophy of Biology.
Crow, J.F. 2006. Sewall Wright, 1889-1988. Handbook of Philosophy of Biology.
Crow, J.F. 2005. Herman Joseph Muller, Evolutionist. Nature Rev. Genet.
Crow, J.F. 2005. Age and sex effects on human mutation rates, an old problem with new complexities. J. Radiation Res.
Crow, J.F. and Bender, W. 2004. Edward B. Lewis, 1918-2004. Genetics 168: 1773-1783.
Crow, J.F. 2004. Assessing population subdivision. In Evolutionary Theory and Processes: Modern Horizons. Ed. by S.P. Wasser. Pp. 35-42. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Crow, J. F. 2003. Was there life before 1953? Nature Genetics 33:449-450.
Garcia-Dorado, A., A. Caballero, and J. F. Crow. 2003. On the persistence and pervasiveness of a new mutation. Evolution 57:2644-2646.
Crow, J. F. 2002. Unequal by nature: a geneticist’s perspective on human differences. Dedalus Winter 2002:81-88.
Crow, J. F. 2002. Here’s to Fisher, genic variance, and the FTNS. Evolution 56: 1313-1316.
Crow, J. F. 2001. Shannon’s brief foray into genetics. Genetics 159:915-917.
Crow, J.F. 2000. The origins, patterns and implications of human spontaneous mutation. Nature Rev. Genetics 1: 40-47.
Crow, J. F. and S. Abrahamson. 1997. Seventy years ago: mutation becomes experimental. Genetics 147:1491-6.
Crow, J. F. 1997. The high spontaneous mutation rate: Is it a health risk? Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 94:8380-6.
Crow, J. F. 1996. Isonomy: a thirty year retrospective. Rev.di Anthrop. 74:25-34.
Crow, J. F. 1995. Spontaneous mutation as a risk factor. Exp Clin Immunogenet 12:121-8.
Crow, J. F. 1994. Advantages of sexual reproduction. Dev Genet 15:205-13.
Kondrashov, A. S. and J. F. Crow. 1993. A molecular approach to estimating the human deleterious mutation rate. Hum Mutat 2:229-34
Crow, J. 1993. Mutation, mean fitness, and genetic load. Oxford Surveys in Evolutionary Biology 9:3-42.
Crow, J. F. 1993. How much do we know about spontaneous human mutation rates? [published erratum appears in Environ Mol Mutagen 1993;21(4):389]. Environ Mol Mutagen 21:122-9.
Crow, J. F. 1999. Unmasking a cheating gene [comment]. Science 283:1651-2.
Crow, J. F. 1999. Hardy, weinberg and language impediments. Genetics 152:821-5
Crow, J. F. and W. F. Dove. 1998. Birds’ eye view: a decade of perspectives. Genetics 148:1405-7.
Crow, J. F. 1998. 90 years ago: the beginning of hybrid maize. Genetics 148:923-8.
Crow, J. F. 1997. Birth defects, Jimson weeds and bell curves. Genetics 147:1-6.
Professor Emeritus of Genetics
Address: 2430 Genetics/Biotech
Telephone: 263-4438
E-mail: jfcrow@wisc.edu
Much of Professor Crow’s research has been in the area of theoretical population genetics, but he has often ventured into the laboratory. Over a career that has spanned more than 50 years, Jim and his collaborators have studied a variety of traits in Drosophila, dissected the genetics of DDT resistance, measured the effects of minor mutations on the overall fitness of populations, described the behavior of mutations that do not play the selection game by Darwin’s rules, and investigated many other subjects. His theoretical work has touched virtually every important subject in population genetics. Jim developed the concept of genetic load, has contributed to the theory of random drift in small populations, has studied of the effects of non-random mating and age-structured populations, and has considered the question, “What good is sex?” He also developed ingenious ways to estimate inbreeding in human populations by making use of the way in which surnames are “inherited,” and is a world expert on the genetic effects of low level ionizing radiation In addition to his many research publications, Professor Crow has published many reviews and appreciations of the work of his colleagues. Finally, his book on population genetics, written with Motoo Kimura, is a combination of textbook and monograph a major contribution to the literature of population genetics research and still the classic in its field. Dr. Crow is no longer accepting graduate students. Professor Crow is a famous teacher of both undergraduates and graduates. For many alumnae of the University of Wisconsin, the class that stands out as the most stimulating, the most satisfying, simply the best, of all the courses they took in college, is the General Genetics course they took from Dr. Crow. Students remember the amazing clarity and simplicity of Dr. Crow’s lectures. He was able to explain in a straightforward way the logic of a mathematical argument that other professors teaching the same course dared not even discuss. Students remember Jim’s disarming human qualities and can still quote some of his jokes after many years. Above all else they remember Jim’s magical ability to reveal the allure of science — there’s so much to learn, and learning brings so much pleasure. Jim’s influence as a teacher extends far beyond his classroom in Madison. His Genetics Notes – virtually everyone calls it “Crow’s Notes” – became the foundation for genetics courses around the world. It was translated into many languages: Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Dutch, Yugoslav. Many students bought Crow’s Notes even when their professor did not assign it, because the Notes were written with such economy and clarity. They made genetics accessible to those who were otherwise mystified by their professors and intimidated by their assigned texts. Here is a list of Dr. Crow’s former graduate students and postdocs. It was compiled informally, and it is probably incomplete (corrections are welcome; please email them to webmaster@genetics.wisc.edu). Public Service Professor Crow has generously contributed his talents to so many good works in the university, the profession, and the community that one wonders how he has managed to achieve so much as a geneticist. He chaired the Department of Medical Genetics for 5 years and the Laboratory of Genetics (that is, Genetics plus Medical Genetics) for a total of 8 years. He also served as Acting Dean of the UW Medical School for 2 years. He has been President of the Genetics Society of America and the American Society of Human Genetics. Jim has served at the national level as a member of the General Advisory Committee to the Director of NIH and of the executive council of the National Committee on Radiation Protection; has chaired the NIH Genetics Study Section and the NIH Mammalian Genetics Study Section; and has chaired several committees for the National Academy of Sciences including, most recently, a committee to study forensic uses of DNA fingerprinting. In addition, Jim for many years played viola for the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and served as President of the Madison Civic Music Society and of the Madison Symphony Orchestra. Recently, he led a fund-raising drive to establish an endowment for the Pro Arte String Quartet. Professor Crow is recognized as a leader and statesman of science. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, The American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the World Academy of Art and Science. He is an honorary Fellow of the Japan Academy and a Fellow of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters.Teaching
Crow JF. 2010. Wright and Fisher on inbreeding and random
drift. Genetics. 2010 Mar;184(3):609-11.
Crow JF. 2010. On
epistasis: why it is unimportant in polygenic directional selection. Philos
Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. Apr 27;365(1544):1241-4.
Crow JF. 2009. Mayr, mathematics and the study of evolution.
J Biol.;8(2):13. Epub 2009 Feb 23.
Crow JF. 2008. Maintaining evolvability. J Genet. Dec;87(4):349-53.
Crow JF. 2008. Just and unjust: E. E. Just (1883-1941). Genetics.
Aug;179(4):1735-40.
Crow JF. 2008. Mid-century controversies in population
genetics. Annu Rev Genet.;42:1-16.
Crow JF. 2008 .Commentary: Haldane and beanbag genetics. Int
J Epidemiol. Jun;37(3):442-5.
Crow JF. 2007. Haldane, Bailey, Taylor and
recombinant-inbred lines. Genetics. Jun;176(2):729-32.
Gulisija D, Crow JF. 2007. Inferring purging from pedigree data. Evolution. May;61(5):1043-51.
Crow JF, Lindsley D, Lucchesi J. 2006. Edward Novitski:
Drosophila virtuoso. Genetics. Oct;174(2):549-53.
Crow JF. 2006. Age and sex effects on human mutation rates:
an old problem with new complexities. J Radiat Res (Tokyo).;47 Suppl B:B75-82.
Crow JF. 2006. H. J. Muller and the "competition
hoax". Genetics. Jun;173(2):511-4.
Crow, J.F. 2006. Sewall Wright, 1889-1988. Handbook of Philosophy of Biology.
Crow, J.F. 2005. Herman Joseph Muller, Evolutionist. Nature Rev. Genet.
Crow, J.F. 2005. Age and sex effects on human mutation rates, an old problem with new complexities. J. Radiation Res.
Crow, J.F. and Bender, W. 2004. Edward B. Lewis, 1918-2004. Genetics 168: 1773-1783.
Crow, J.F. 2004. Assessing population subdivision. In Evolutionary Theory and Processes: Modern Horizons. Ed. by S.P. Wasser. Pp. 35-42. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Crow, J. F. 2003. Was there life before 1953? Nature Genetics 33:449-450.
Garcia-Dorado, A., A. Caballero, and J. F. Crow. 2003. On the persistence and pervasiveness of a new mutation. Evolution 57:2644-2646.
Crow, J. F. 2002. Unequal by nature: a geneticist’s perspective on human differences. Dedalus Winter 2002:81-88.
Crow, J. F. 2002. Here’s to Fisher, genic variance, and the FTNS. Evolution 56: 1313-1316.
Crow, J. F. 2001. Shannon’s brief foray into genetics. Genetics 159:915-917.
Crow, J.F. 2000. The origins, patterns and implications of human spontaneous mutation. Nature Rev. Genetics 1: 40-47.
Crow, J. F. and S. Abrahamson. 1997. Seventy years ago: mutation becomes experimental. Genetics 147:1491-6.
Crow, J. F. 1997. The high spontaneous mutation rate: Is it a health risk? Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 94:8380-6.
Crow, J. F. 1996. Isonomy: a thirty year retrospective. Rev.di Anthrop. 74:25-34.
Crow, J. F. 1995. Spontaneous mutation as a risk factor. Exp Clin Immunogenet 12:121-8.
Crow, J. F. 1994. Advantages of sexual reproduction. Dev Genet 15:205-13.
Kondrashov, A. S. and J. F. Crow. 1993. A molecular approach to estimating the human deleterious mutation rate. Hum Mutat 2:229-34
Crow, J. 1993. Mutation, mean fitness, and genetic load. Oxford Surveys in Evolutionary Biology 9:3-42.
Crow, J. F. 1993. How much do we know about spontaneous human mutation rates? [published erratum appears in Environ Mol Mutagen 1993;21(4):389]. Environ Mol Mutagen 21:122-9.
Crow, J. F. 1999. Unmasking a cheating gene [comment]. Science 283:1651-2.
Crow, J. F. 1999. Hardy, weinberg and language impediments. Genetics 152:821-5
Crow, J. F. and W. F. Dove. 1998. Birds’ eye view: a decade of perspectives. Genetics 148:1405-7.
Crow, J. F. 1998. 90 years ago: the beginning of hybrid maize. Genetics 148:923-8.
Crow, J. F. 1997. Birth defects, Jimson weeds and bell curves. Genetics 147:1-6.
