Sean Carroll

Sean B. Carroll is an award-winning scientist, author, educator, and film producer. He leads the Department of Science Education of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the largest private supporter of science education activities in the US, and is the Allan Wilson Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the University of Wisconsin.

An internationally-recognized evolutionary biologist, Carroll's laboratory research has centered on the genes that control animal body patterns and play major roles in the evolution of animal diversity. In recognition of his scientific contributions, Carroll has received the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Sciences, been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and elected an Associate Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization.

A prominent science communicator in print, on radio, and on television, Carroll is the author of "The Serengeti Rules: The Quest to Discover How Life Works and Why It Matters" (Princeton University Press), "Brave Genius: A Scientist, A Philosopher, and Their Daring Adventures from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize" (Crown, Random House), "Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species", which was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award for non-fiction (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), "The Making of the Fittest" (2006, W.W. Norton) and "Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo" (2005, W.W. Norton). He also wrote a regular feature "Remarkable Creatures" for the New York Times Science Times. For his many literary contributions, Carroll received Rockefeller University's Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing About Science in 2016.

Carroll has served as executive producer or executive in charge of several feature documentary films or series including "The Farthest" (2017), "Amazon Adventure" (2017), "The Lucky Specials" (2017), "Spillover: Zika, Ebola & Beyond" (2016), "Mass Extinction: Life at the Brink" (2014) and "Your Inner Fish" (2014), as well as approximately twenty short films, which have garnered various awards. His first two books were the basis for, and Carroll was the scientific consulting producer of, a two-hour NOVA special "What Darwin Never Knew" that was first broadcast in December 2009 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s "On the Origin of Species."

For his educational contributions, Carroll has received the Stephen Jay Gould Prize for the advancement of the public understanding of evolution from the Society for the Study of Evolution, the Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of Biology Teachers, and the Viktor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Award from the Society for Developmental Biology and numerous honorary lectureships. He was named one of America's most promising leaders under 40 by TIME Magazine in 1994.

He earned his B.A. in Biology at Washington University in St. Louis (1979), his Ph.D. in Immunology at Tufts Medical School (1983), and carried out his postdoctoral research with Dr. Matthew Scott at the University of Colorado-Boulder. He has received honorary Doctor of Science degrees from the University of Minnesota (2009) and Tufts University (2017).

Sean lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland with his wife Jamie.