Godfrey Matthew Hewitt (10 January 1940 – 18 February 2013) was a British professor and evolutionary geneticist at the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

who was very influential in the development of the fields of

molecular ecology Molecular ecology is a subdiscipline of ecology that is concerned with applying Molecular genetics, molecular genetic techniques to ecological questions (e.g., population structure, phylogeography, conservation, speciation, hybridization, biodive ...

phylogeography Phylogeography is the study of the historical processes that may be responsible for the past to present geographic distributions of genealogical lineages. This is accomplished by considering the geographic distribution of individuals in light of ge ...

speciation Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species. The biologist Orator F. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution within ...

and hybridisation.

Academic career

Hewitt was born in Worcester UK in 1940 and attended The King's School there. He took his undergraduate degree at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

and stayed to complete a PhD with advisors Kenneth Mather, John Jinks, and Bernard John. He subsequently gained a

Fulbright Fellowship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...

to study at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

in 1965–1966. On his return he took up a position at the newly established

, and he was promoted to Professor in 1988. He worked in the School of Biological Sciences until his retirement in 2005, and subsequently maintained a very substantial scientific output as Emeritus Professor.

Publications

At the time of his death Hewitt had 250 peer reviewed academic publications and these had been cited by approximately ten thousand other articles according to Web of Knowledge. His most highly cited publications are in the area of phylogeography and hybrid zones. In particular Hewitt was influential in understanding the diversity of European biota in the context of glacial cycles.

Awards and achievements

Hewitt served as president of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology from 1999 to 2001. He was awarded the 2005

Molecular Ecology Molecular ecology is a subdiscipline of ecology that is concerned with applying Molecular genetics, molecular genetic techniques to ecological questions (e.g., population structure, phylogeography, conservation, speciation, hybridization, biodive ...

Prize, and he received a Lifetime Achievement Award for creative mentoring in science (2006) from ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

'' magazine. This achievement is reflected in the large number of students and postdocs who have established their own academic careers. Hewitt had strong links with many international organisations; he was awarded Doctor "Honoris Causa" by the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in 2008; appointed as honorary professor at the Institute of Zoology,

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; ) is the national academy for natural sciences and the highest consultancy for science and technology of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's largest research organization, with 106 research i ...

, Beijing in 2000; was a visiting professor at La Sapienza, University of Rome 1 (1998); Royal Society Visiting Fellow, University of Hawaii (1979); visiting fellow at the Australian National University, Canberra (1973–1974); Royal Society Visiting Fellow at the Gulbenkian Institute, Portugal (1971).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hewitt, Godfrey Matthew 1940 births 2013 deaths English geneticists British evolutionary biologists Alumni of the University of Birmingham Academics of the University of East Anglia People educated at King's School, Worcester Scientists from Worcester, England University of California, Davis alumni