From English major to Greenpeace to White House-recognized evolutionary biologist

UO's PECASE winner Joe Thornton entered science via activism

Photo by Jim Barlow

EUGENE, Ore. -- (Nov. 1, 2007) -- In 12 years, Joe Thornton went from Greenpeace political activist to being honored by President George W. Bush as one of the nation's most promising young scientists.

"It's a wonderful honor -- and very encouraging politically -- that the White House is recognizing the work that my students, postdocs and I are doing in the field of molecular evolution," said Thornton, professor of biology in the UO Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Thornton's work has illuminated how evolutionary processes generated the complex molecular systems that run our cells -- the very systems that the advocates of "Intelligent Design" have argued could not possibly have evolved.

Thornton was one of 56 U.S. scientists named as recipients of the 2006 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers -- the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on young researchers at the outset of their careers. The White House chose Thornton for his "innovative research on the evolution of complex molecular systems, for reconstructing and experimentally characterizing ancient genes, for elucidating the mechanisms by which hormones and their receptor proteins evolved, and for educating students and non-governmental organizations about issues at the interface of biology and public policy." (UO announcement)

Thornton recently attracted widespread attention for two studies published in the journal Science. His lab used computational and biochemical methods to resurrect proteins hundreds of millions of years old and determine their atomic structures, revealing in unprecedented detail the process by which genes evolve new functions. "Never before have we seen so clearly, so far back in time, to understand how the molecular systems that run our bodies evolved," Thornton said at the time.

His rise to recognition by the White House didn't follow the usual path for a scientific career. Thornton studied English literature at Yale University until 1987, when he left -- just shy of a bachelor's degree (which he later received) -- to devote himself to environmental activism. He spent almost a decade with Greenpeace, where he worked with community groups fighting toxic pollution in the United States and internationally, wrote prolifically on scientific and political questions related to chemicals and health, testified before Congress and organized numerous protests.

In 1995, Thornton decided to devote his career to scientific research, enrolling in graduate school at Columbia University, from which he earned two master's degrees and a doctorate -- with distinction -- completing the latter in 2000. While working on his dissertation in molecular evolution, he also wrote a book on chemicals and health. That book, Pandora's Poison: Chlorine, Health, and a New Environmental Strategy (MIT Press, 2000), was labeled "a landmark book" and "a masterpiece" by the British journal Nature.

"While reading the scientific literature at Greenpeace, I became fascinated with biology, especially with hormones and their receptor proteins, which are one of the key targets for toxic chemicals," Thornton said. "These systems are exquisitely sensitive and specific, and I wanted to know how they could get that way." In his graduate school application essay, Thornton proposed to study how hormone-receptor systems evolved -- precisely what his lab continues to work on today, though using techniques that he could never have dreamed of at that time.

Thornton continues his engagement with political issues. The proposal that won him the Presidential honor included development of a course for graduate and advanced undergraduate students called Biology and Politics, and serving as a technical advisor to environmental organizations working on the health effects of toxic chemicals.

Talk to Thornton and you'll find that his English-major roots remain strong. ‘‘Science is an incredibly potent force in our society -- not only for enhancing our understanding of nature but also in the ways it shapes our political and cultural discourse," he said. "For me, doing science is a way of contributing to culture. That makes every aspect of science -- designing experiments, interpreting the results, and explaining their significance to other scientists and the broader public -- incredibly challenging and exciting."

Thornton's research at the University of Oregon has been supported by more than $2.8 million in grants from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and Oregon Medical Research Foundation. In five years on the UO faculty, he has published 25 scientific papers, including five in the journals Science, Nature, and Cell, the most prestigious publications in his field.

His recent honors have included an NSF CAREER award, a fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the UO's Richard A. Bray Faculty Fellowship for excellence in teaching and scholarship and the selection as Columbia University's Eric Holtzman Memorial Lecturer in biology and society.