{{Short description|American evolutionary developmental biologist}} {{About||the physicist|Sean M. Carroll}} {{good article}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2019}} {{Infobox scientist | image = Dr. Sean B. Carroll 2022.jpg | alt = | caption = Carroll in 2022 | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1960|09|17}} | birth_place = Toledo, Ohio, US | fields = Evolutionary developmental biology, molecular biology, genetics | workplaces = University of Maryland, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Colorado at Boulder | alma_mater = Washington University in St. Louis <small>(BS)</small><br/>Tufts University <small>(PhD)</small> | doctoral_advisor = B. David Stollar | academic_advisors = Matthew P. Scott | awards = Presidential Young Investigator Award<br/>Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science<br/>Stephen Jay Gould Prize from the Society for the Study of Evolution<br/>Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of Biology Teachers<br/>Shaw Scientist Award from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation }}
'''Sean Brendan Carroll''' (born September 17, 1960) is an American evolutionary developmental biologist, author, educator and executive producer. He is a distinguished university professor at the University of Maryland and professor emeritus of molecular biology and genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His studies focus on the evolution of cis-regulatory elements in the regulation of gene expression in the context of biological development, using ''Drosophila'' as a model system. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, of the American Philosophical Society (2007), of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for Advancement of Science. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.
Carroll has received the Stephen Jay Gould Prize from the Society for the Study of Evolution, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science, and the Lewis Thomas Prize at Rockefeller University. He has produced Emmy-winning films ''The Farthest'' and ''The Serengeti Rules'', as well as the Oscar-nominated film ''All That Breathes''.
==Biography==
Sean B. Carroll was born in Toledo, Ohio. He is of Irish ancestry.<ref>{{Cite web |title=117 {{!}} Sean B. Carroll on Randomness and the Course of Evolution – Sean Carroll |url=https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2020/10/05/117-sean-b-carroll-on-randomness-and-the-course-of-evolution/ |access-date=2023-10-24 |website=www.preposterousuniverse.com}}</ref> He has stated that as a child he would flip over rocks looking for snakes while attending Maumee Valley Country Day School, and at age eleven or twelve, he started keeping snakes. This activity led him to notice the patterns on the snakes and wonder how those formed. He got his B.A. in biology at Washington University in St. Louis, his Ph.D. in immunology from Tufts University and did post-doctoral work at the University of Colorado Boulder.<ref name="fi">{{cite web |url=https://www.fi.edu/laureates/sean-b-carroll |title=Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science |year=2012 |publisher=Franklin Institute |access-date=April 6, 2013 |archive-date=March 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190321170917/https://www.fi.edu/laureates/sean-b-carroll |url-status=live }}</ref>
==Career==
Carroll has published extensively on evolutionary developmental biology ("evo-devo"), studying the evolution of regulatory modules that specify body parts and patterns. Carroll is an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.<ref>{{cite web |title=Our Scientists |url=http://www.hhmi.org/scientists/sean-b-carroll |publisher=Howard Hughes Medical Institute |access-date=August 11, 2017 |archive-date=March 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190321170934/https://www.hhmi.org/scientists/sean-b-carroll |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1987, Carroll set up a laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison "focused on understanding how genes get used in different ways to generate the diversity of form that we see".<ref name="fi" /> The Laboratory of Cell and Molecular Biology lists Carroll's interests as "Genetic control of body pattern in fruit flies, butterflies, and other animals".<ref>{{cite web |title=LCMB Investigators |url=http://molbio.wisc.edu/LCMB-Faculty |website=Laboratory of Cell and Molecular Biology at UW-Madison |access-date=May 2, 2017 |archive-date=May 15, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200515210457/https://molbio.wisc.edu/LCMB-Faculty |url-status=live }}</ref> Carroll's team has shown, in a series of papers, how the activation of genes during the embryonic stages of the ''Drosophila'' fruit fly controls the development of its wings. The team has been searching for the butterfly's counterparts of these genes.<ref>{{cite news |last=Wade |first=Nicholas |title=How Nature Makes a Butterfly's Wing |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/05/science/how-nature-makes-a-butterfly-s-wing.html |date=July 5, 1994 |access-date=May 4, 2017 |work=The New York Times |page=C9 |archive-date=April 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190405101653/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/05/science/how-nature-makes-a-butterfly-s-wing.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
In 2010, he was named vice-president for science education of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.<ref name="hhmi">{{cite web |url=http://www.hhmi.org/about/carroll.html |title=Sean B. Carroll, HHMI Vice President for Science Education |publisher=Howard Hughes Medical Institute |access-date=October 22, 2013 |archive-date=March 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190321170946/https://www.hhmi.org/about/leadership/senior-executive-team/sean-carroll |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2011, the HHMI launched a documentary film initiative to produce science features for television, to which Carroll was appointed as one of the executive producers.<ref>{{cite web |title=HHMI Launches Documentary Film Unit to Create Science Features for Television |url=http://www.hhmi.org/news/hhmi-launches-documentary-film-unit-create-science-features-television |publisher=Howard Hughes Medical Institute |access-date=May 2, 2017 |archive-date=March 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190321170933/https://www.hhmi.org/news/hhmi-launches-documentary-film-unit-create-science-features-television |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2012, Carroll founded HHMI Tangled Bank Studios.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Walsh |first1=Barry |title=HHMI Tangled Bank Studios' Sean Carroll talks new vaccine doc, taking on denialism |url=https://realscreen.com/2020/12/10/hhmi-tangled-bank-studios-sean-carroll-talks-new-vaccine-doc-taking-on-denialism/ |website=Realscreen |date=10 December 2020}}</ref> In 2012, a film produced by this studio called ''The Day the Mesozoic Died'' retraced the investigation that led to the discovery of the asteroid collision that triggered the mass extinction at the end of that Era. The film was introduced by Carroll at a National Teacher's Conference.<ref>{{cite web |title=HHMI Premieres New Film Showcasing One of Science's Greatest Detective Stories |url=http://www.hhmi.org/news/hhmi-premieres-new-film-showcasing-one-sciences-greatest-detective-stories |publisher=Howard Hughes Medical Institute |access-date=May 2, 2017 |archive-date=March 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190321170920/https://www.hhmi.org/news/hhmi-premieres-new-film-showcasing-one-sciences-greatest-detective-stories |url-status=live }}</ref>
Carroll was an executive producer<ref name=Variety17>{{cite news |last1=McNary |first1=Dave |title=Voyager Mission Documentary 'The Farthest' Lands August Release |url=https://variety.com/2017/film/festivals/voyager-mission-documentary-the-farthest-us-release-1202513475/ |access-date=23 August 2023 |work=Variety |date=2 August 2017}}</ref> of ''The Farthest'', a film about the Voyager program, which won the Emmy in 2018 for outstanding science and technology documentary.<ref name=IrishTimes18>{{cite news |last1=Falvey |first1=Deirdre |title=Irish film 'The Farthest' wins Emmy for outstanding science documentary |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/irish-film-the-farthest-wins-emmy-for-outstanding-science-documentary-1.3649255 |access-date=23 August 2023 |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=2 October 2018}}</ref> Carroll was an executive producer of the 2022 Oscar-nominated documentary ''All That Breathes'',<ref name=NBC23>{{cite news |last1=Cho |first1=Aimee |title=UMD Professor Up for Best Documentary Academy Award |url=https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/umd-professor-up-for-best-documentary-academy-award/3291129/ |access-date=18 August 2023 |work=NBC 4 |date=2 March 2023}}</ref> which won the best documentary award at the Cannes Film Festival.<ref name=Nautilus22 />
Carroll is a proponent of the extended evolutionary synthesis.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Carroll |first=Sean B. |year=2008 |title=Evo-Devo and an Expanding Evolutionary Synthesis: A Genetic Theory of Morphological Evolution |journal=Cell |volume=134 |issue=1 |pages=25–36 |doi=10.1016/j.cell.2008.06.030 |pmid=18614008|s2cid=2513041 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Since 2013, Carroll has been listed on the Advisory Council of the National Center for Science Education.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ncse.com/about/advisory-council |title=Advisory Council |website=ncse.com |publisher=National Center for Science Education |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130810112828/https://ncse.com/about/advisory-council |archive-date=August 10, 2013 |access-date=October 30, 2018}}</ref> <!--In 2006, Carroll was interviewed by PBS as part of the NOVA documentary "The Family That Walks on All Fours",<ref name="nova all fours">{{cite web |title=NOVA: Family That Walks on All Fours |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/allfours/ |publisher=PBS |access-date=September 11, 2017 |archive-date=March 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190321211307/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/allfours/ |url-status=live }}</ref> about a family in Turkey that has members who walk on their hands and feet. In this interview, he discusses the possible genetic underpinnings of this family's condition.--> From September 2009 to March 2013, he wrote a column for ''The New York Times'' called "Remarkable Creatures", where he discussed findings in animal evolution.<ref name="nyt shark">{{cite web |last=Carroll |first=Sean B |title=In a Shark's Tooth, a New Family Tree |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/science/15creature.html |date=September 15, 2009 |website=The New York Times |access-date=February 10, 2017 |ref=remarkable1 |archive-date=March 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190321170921/https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/science/15creature.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="nyt mimicry">{{cite news |last=Carroll |first=Sean B. |title=Solving the Puzzles of Mimicry in Nature |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/science/solving-the-puzzles-of-mimicry-in-nature.html |website=The New York Times |date=March 11, 2013 |access-date=February 10, 2017 |ref=remarkablelast |archive-date=March 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190321171116/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/science/solving-the-puzzles-of-mimicry-in-nature.html |url-status=live }}</ref> <!--Carroll was an executive producer of the 2017 documentary The Farthest, which describes NASA's Voyager program.<ref>{{cite news |title=PBS and HHMI Tangled Bank Studios Celebrate 40th Anniversary of NASA Voyager Launch in The Farthest (w.t.) |url=https://pbsabout.bento-live.pbs.org/about/about-pbs/blogs/news/pbs-and-hhmi-tangled-bank-studios-celebrate-40th-anniversary-of-nasa-voyager-launch-in-the-farthest-wt/ |date=January 15, 2017 |language=en}}</ref>-->
== Awards == In 2012, he was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science from the Franklin Institute "for proposing and demonstrating that the diversity and multiplicity of animal life is largely due to the different ways that the same genes are regulated rather than to mutation of the genes themselves."<ref name="fi" /> In 2016, he was awarded the Lewis Thomas Prize by Rockefeller University.<ref name="lewis thomas prize">{{cite web |title=Presentation of the 2016 Lewis Thomas Prize to Sean B. Carroll |url=https://giveandjoin.rockefeller.edu/events/lewis-thomas/2016 |publisher=The Rockefeller University |access-date=April 15, 2016 |archive-date=December 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221150819/https://giveandjoin.rockefeller.edu/events/lewis-thomas/2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>
==Selected works==
===Books===
*''From DNA to Diversity: Molecular Genetics and the Evolution of Animal Design'', with Jennifer Grenier and Scott Weatherbee (2004, Wiley-Blackwell; {{ISBN|978-1-4051-1950-4}}) *''Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom'' (2005, W. W. Norton & Company; {{ISBN|978-0-393-06016-4}}) *''The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution'' (2006, W. W. Norton & Company; {{ISBN|978-0-393-06163-5}}) *''Into the Jungle: Great Adventures in the Search for Evolution'' (2008, Benjamin Cummings; {{ISBN|978-0-321-55671-4}}) *''Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species'' (2009, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; {{ISBN|978-0-15-101485-9}}) *''Brave Genius: A Scientist, a Philosopher, and Their Daring Adventures from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize'' (2013, Crown; {{ISBN|978-0-307-95233-2}}) *''The Serengeti Rules: The Quest to Discover How Life Works and Why It Matters'' (2016, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-691-16742-8}}) *''A Series of Fortunate Events: Chance and the Making of the Planet, Life, and You'' (2020), Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-691-20175-7}}.
===Magazine articles=== *''The Origins of Form: Ancient genes, recycled and re-purposed, control embryonic development in organisms of striking diversity'' (2005, Natural History Magazine) <ref>{{cite web |last1=Carroll |first1=Sean B. |title=The Origins of Form |url=http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/features/061488/the-origins-of-form |website=Natural History |access-date=May 2, 2017 |archive-date=October 9, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181009154501/http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/features/061488/the-origins-of-form |url-status=live }}</ref> *''God as Genetic Engineer''. A review of Michael Behe's book "The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism" (2007, Science Magazine) <ref>{{cite journal |last=Carroll |first=Sean B. |title=God as Genetic Engineer |journal=Science Magazine |date=June 8, 2007 |volume=316 |issue=5830 |pages=1427–1428 |doi=10.1126/science.1145104|doi-access= }}</ref> *''Regulating Evolution: How Gene Switches Make Life'' (2008, Scientific American) <ref>{{cite web |author1=Sean B Carroll |author2=Nicolas Gompel |author3=Benjamin Prudhomme |title=Regulating Evolution: How Gene Switches Make Life |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/regulating-evolution/ |website=Scientific American |access-date=May 3, 2017 |date=May 2008 |archive-date=July 12, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170712174340/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/regulating-evolution/ |url-status=live }} (Preview)</ref>
===Filmography=== {|class="wikitable sortable" style="border:none; margin:0; |- align="bottom" ! scope="col" | Year ! scope="col" | Title ! scope="col" class="unsortable" | Note ! scope="col" class="unsortable" | {{Abbr|Ref.|Reference}} |- | 2017|| ''The Farthest'' || Emmy award, Outstanding science and technology documentary || <ref name=Variety17 /><ref name=IrishTimes18 /> |- | 2018 || ''The Serengeti Rules'' || Emmy award, Best nature documentary ||<ref name=Realscreen20 >{{cite news |last1=Walsh |first1=Barry |title=HHMI Tangled Bank Studios' Sean Carroll talks new vaccine doc, taking on denialism |url=https://realscreen.com/2020/12/10/hhmi-tangled-bank-studios-sean-carroll-talks-new-vaccine-doc-taking-on-denialism/ |access-date=23 August 2023 |work=Realscreen |date=10 December 2020}}</ref><ref name=HollywoodReporter19>{{cite news |last1=Defore |first1=John |title='The Serengeti Rules': Film Review |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/serengeti-rules-1208985/ |access-date=23 August 2023 |work=The Hollywood Reporter |date=8 May 2019}}</ref>
|- | 2019 || ''Oliver Sacks: His Own Life'' || ||<ref name=NYFilm19>{{cite news |last1=Gleiberman |first1=Owen |title=New York Film Review: 'Oliver Sacks: His Own Life' |url=https://variety.com/2019/film/reviews/oliver-sacks-his-own-story-review-1203355190/ |access-date=23 August 2023 |work=Variety |date=1 October 2019}}</ref> |- | 2022 || ''All That Breathes'' ||||<ref name=Nautilus22 >{{cite news |last1=French |first1=Kristen |title=The Human Story at the Heart of Science |url=https://nautil.us/the-human-story-at-the-heart-of-science-253711/ |access-date=23 August 2023 |work=Nautilus |date=20 December 2022}}</ref><ref name=Deadline23>{{cite news |last1=Kroll |first1=Justin |title='All That Breathes' Director Shaunak Sen Signs With WME And Entertainment 360 |url=https://deadline.com/2023/02/all-that-breathes-shaunak-sen-entertainment-360-wme-1235260265/ |access-date=18 August 2023 |work=Deadline |date=16 February 2023}}</ref> |}
==Reception==
Science writer Peter Forbes, writing in ''The Guardian'', calls ''Endless Forms Most Beautiful'' an "essential book" and its author "both a distinguished scientist ... and one of our great science writers." In Forbes's view, in ''The Serengeti Rules'' Carroll "manages to unite natural history with the hard science of genomics."<ref>{{cite news |last=Forbes |first=Peter |title=The Serengeti Rules by Sean B Carroll review – a visionary book about how life works |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/23/the-serengeti-rules-sean-b-carroll-review |access-date=April 15, 2016 |agency=The Guardian |date=March 23, 2016 |archive-date=March 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190321170920/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/23/the-serengeti-rules-sean-b-carroll-review |url-status=live }}</ref> In her article on ''Science Based Medicine'' titled ''The Essential Role of Regulation In Human Health and In Ecology: The Serengeti Rules'', Harriet A. Hall says "This book is a great way to learn about the rules of regulation and about how science works. It's not just a painless way to learn, its positively fun."<ref>{{cite web |last=Hall |first=Harriet |author-link=Harriet Hall |title=The Essential Role of Regulation In Human Health and In Ecology: The Serengeti Rules |url=https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-essential-role-of-regulation-in-human-health-and-in-ecology-the-serengeti-rules/ |website=Science Based Medicine |date=March 2016 |access-date=1 March 2016 |archive-date=April 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200426083328/https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-essential-role-of-regulation-in-human-health-and-in-ecology-the-serengeti-rules/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The documentary film, ''The Serengeti Rules'', was released in 2018 and is based on Carroll's book.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://worldscreen.com/tvreal/pbs-international-hhmi-tangled-bank-partner-on-science-docs/ |title=PBS International & HHMI Tangled Bank Partner on Science Docs |last=Regan |first=Chelsea |date=April 7, 2019 |website=TVREAL |access-date=April 23, 2019 |archive-date=June 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190616125536/https://worldscreen.com/tvreal/pbs-international-hhmi-tangled-bank-partner-on-science-docs/|url-status=live}}</ref>
Louise S. Mead, reviewing ''The Making of the Fittest'' for the National Center for Science Education, notes that Carroll describes "some of the overwhelming evidence for evolution provided in DNA", using different lines of inquiry such as DNA sequences that code for genes no longer in use, and evidence of evolutionary change. Mead notes that evolutionary theory has predictive power, as with icefish whose ancestors had hemoglobin; as they no longer need it in their icy environment, they have lost it.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mead |first=Louise S. |title=Review: The Making of the Fittest |journal=Reports of the National Center for Science Education |date=2008 |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=37–39 |url=http://ncse.com/rncse/28/1/review-making-fittest |access-date=April 15, 2016 |archive-date=April 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403062852/http://ncse.com/rncse/28/1/review-making-fittest |url-status=live }}</ref>
Douglas H. Erwin, reviewing ''Endless Forms Most Beautiful'' for ''Artificial Life'', remarks that life forms from ''Drosophila'' to man have far fewer genes than many biologists expected – in man's case, only some 20,000, which is about the same as a fly. He notes the "astonishing morphological diversity" of animals coming from "such a limited number of genes". He praises Carroll's "insightful and enthusiastic" style, writing in a "witty and engaging" way, pulling the reader into the complexities of Hox and PAX-6, as well as celebrating the Cambrian explosion of life forms, and much else.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Erwin |first=Douglas J. |title=Book Review: Endless Forms Most Beautiful |journal=Artificial Life |date=2007 |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=87–89 |doi=10.1162/artl.2007.13.1.87 |s2cid=11493585 }}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist|30em}}
==External links== * {{Official website|seanbcarroll.com}} * [https://biology.umd.edu/people/sean-carroll UMD faculty page] * {{cite journal |url=http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=regulating-evolution&page=2 |journal=Scientific American |title=Regulating Evolution: How Gene Switches Make Life|year=2008 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0508-60 |pmid=18444326 |last1=Carroll |first1=S. B. |last2=Prud'Homme |first2=B. |last3=Gompel |first3=N. |volume=298 |issue=5 |pages=60–67 |url-access=subscription }} * {{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/26/science/26devo.html |work='New York Times |title=From a Few Genes, Life's Myriad Shapes |date=June 6, 2007}} * {{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6353991 |publisher=NPR |work=Talk of the Nation |date=October 20, 2006 |format=podcast |title=Author Uses DNA Record to Argue Evolution}} * {{cite web |title=The Science of Evolution |url=https://www.nytimes.com/video/science/1194817104756/the-science-of-evolution.html |website=The New York Times |date=June 25, 2007 |access-date=August 10, 2017}}
{{Genarch}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carroll, Sean B.}} Category:American evolutionary biologists Category:American science writers Category:Washington University in St. Louis alumni Category:Tufts University School of Medicine alumni Category:Living people Category:Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Category:1960 births Category:American skeptics Category:American critics of creationism Category:Extended evolutionary synthesis Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Category:Benjamin Franklin Medal (Franklin Institute) laureates