Nowak held professorships at
Oxford University and at the
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, before being recruited by Harvard in 2003. He was the director of Harvard's program for evolutionary dynamics from 2003 until 2020.
Early life and education
Nowak was born in Vienna, Austria.[3] He studied at Albertus Magnus Gymnasium and the
University of Vienna, earning a doctorate in biochemistry and mathematics in 1989. He worked with
Peter Schuster on
quasi-species theory and with
Karl Sigmund on
evolution of cooperation. Nowak received the highest Austrian honors (
Sub auspiciis Praesidentis) when awarded his degree.[4][5] In 1993, he received his "Habilitation" at the Institute of Mathematics at the University of Vienna. In 2001, he was elected into the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Career
From 1989 to 1998, Nowak worked at the
University of Oxford with
Robert May. First, he was an Erwin Schrödinger postdoctoral Scholar, then a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, then a Junior Research Fellow at Keble College. From 1992, he was a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow.[6] From 1997 to 1998, Nowak was a professor of mathematical biology.[7]
In 1998, Martin Nowak was recruited by the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
He was Head of the Institutes first Initiative in Theoretical Biology from 1998 until 2003.
Nowak has authored books and scientific papers on topics in
evolutionary game theory,
cancer,
viruses,
infectious disease, the
evolution of language, and the
evolution of cooperation.[10][11][12][13][14][15] At Oxford, he helped to establish the fields of virus dynamics[16] and spatial games[17] (which later became evolutionary graph theory). He continued his collaboration with Karl Sigmund in game theory, proposing generous tit-for-tat[18] and win-stay, lose-shift,[19] inventing adaptive dynamics,[20] alternating games[21] and indirect reciprocity.[22] He collaborated with John Maynard Smith on genetic redundancy,[23] with Baruch Blumberg on hepatitis B virus,[24] with George Shaw and Andrew McMichael on HIV.[25][26] He worked with Robert May on evolution of virulence.[27]
In 1990, Nowak and Robert May proposed a mathematical model which explained the puzzling delay between
HIV infection and
AIDS in terms of the evolution of different strains of the virus during individual infections, to the point where the genetic diversity of the virus reaches a threshold whereby the immune system can no longer control it.[28] This detailed quantitative approach depended on assumptions about the biology of HIV which were subsequently confirmed by experiment.[29]
At Harvard, Nowak continued his work on virus dynamics, cancer dynamics, and evolutionary game theory. In 2004, he established evolutionary game dynamics in finite populations.[30] In 2005 and 2006 he wrote key papers establishing evolutionary graph theory.[31]In 2006, he suggested that cooperation was a third fundamental principle of evolution beside mutation and selection.[32] In 2007, he proposed prelife - a theory for the origin of life. [33] In 2008 and 2009 he suggested that positive interaction, but not punishment, promotes evolution of cooperation. [34]
In a paper in Science in 2006, Nowak enunciated and unified the mathematical rules for the five understood bases of the evolution of cooperation (
kin selection,
direct reciprocity,
indirect reciprocity,
network reciprocity, and
group selection). Nowak suggests that evolution is constructive because of cooperation, and that we might add “natural cooperation” as a third fundamental principle of evolution beside mutation and natural selection.[35]
In a paper featured on the front cover of Nature in 2007, Nowak and colleagues demonstrated that the transition of irregular verbs to regular verbs in English over time obeys a simple
inverse-square law, thus providing one of the first quantitative laws in the evolution of language.[36]
In 2010 a paper by Nowak,
E. O. Wilson, and Corina Tarnita, in Nature, argued that standard natural selection theory represents a simpler and superior approach to
kin selection theory in the evolution of
eusociality.[37] This work has led to many comments including strong criticism from proponents of
inclusive fitness theory.[38][39][40][41] Nowak maintains that the findings of the paper are conclusive and that the field of social evolution should move beyond inclusive fitness theory.[42]
He has over 300 scientific publications, of which 40 are in Nature and 15 in Science.[43]
Nowak's research interests include:
Somatic evolution of
cancer,
genetic instability,
tumor suppressor genes
Nowak's first book Virus Dynamics: Mathematical Principles of Immunology and Virology, written with Robert May, was published by
Oxford University Press in 2001.[44] Nowak's 2006 book Evolutionary Dynamics: Exploring the Equations of Life discusses the evolution of various biological processes. Reviewing Evolutionary Dynamics in Nature,
Sean Nee called it a "unique book" that "should be on the shelf of anyone who has, or thinks they might have, an interest in theoretical biology."[45] The book received the
Association of American Publishers' R.R. Hawkins Award for the Outstanding Professional, Reference or Scholarly Work of 2006.[46]
Nowak's book SuperCooperators: The Mathematics of Evolution, Altruism and Human Behaviour (Or, Why We Need Each Other to Succeed), co-authored with
Roger Highfield, was published in 2011. SuperCooperators is both an autobiography of Nowak and a popular presentation of his work in mathematical biology on the evolution of cooperation, the origin of life, and the evolution of language. In the book, Nowak argues that cooperation is the third fundamental principle of evolution, next to
mutation and
natural selection. SuperCooperators received positive reviews in The New York Times, Nature, and the Financial Times.[47][48][49]
With Sarah Coakley, Nowak edited the 2013 book Evolution, Games, and God: The Principle of Cooperation, published by
Harvard University Press. The volume features articles from experts in multiple fields who explore the interplay between theology and evolutionary theory as pertaining to cooperation and
altruism.[50]
Nowak is a
Roman Catholic.[52] In a 2007 lecture at Harvard, he argued that science and religion occupied different but complementary roles in humans' search for meaning, stating: "Science and religion are two essential components in the search for truth. Denying either is a barren approach."[53]
^Nowak, Martin A.; Highfield, Roger (2012). SuperCooperators: altruism, evolution, and why we need each other to succeed (1. Free Press trade paperback ed.). New York, NY: Free Press.
ISBN978-1-4516-2663-6.
^
abcWax, Heather (October 15, 2007).
"Cooperation counts for math professor". The Boston Globe. Archived from
the original on July 3, 2011. Retrieved January 8, 2024. Nowak, 42, a Harvard University mathematician and biologist, is at the forefront of a new field called evolutionary dynamics, in which Darwin's idea of natural selection is formulated in terms of math equations.
^Nowak, M. A.; May, R. M. (22 January 1994). "Superinfection and the evolution of parasite virulence". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences. 255 (1342): 81–89.
doi:
10.1098/rspb.1994.0012.
PMID8153140.
S2CID44489629.
^Gadagkar, R (2010). "Sociobiology in turmoil again". Current Science. 99: 1036–1041.
^Rousset, F.; Lion, S. (2011). "Much ado about nothing: Nowak et al.'s charge against inclusive fitness theory". Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 24 (6): 1386–1392.
doi:
10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02251.x.
PMID21457170.
S2CID10363508. Despite their claims of novelty and the media frenzy, [Nowak, Tarnita and Wilson]'s article is actually a collection of worn-out arguments and thus represents a conceptual and technical step backward.