Rate My Professor Martin Nowak

Martin A. Nowak is Professor of Mathematics and of Biology at Harvard University. He was born in Vienna in 1965 and studied biochemistry and mathematics at the University of Vienna, completing his diploma thesis with Peter Schuster and his PhD thesis with Karl Sigmund, graduating sub auspiciis praesidentis rei publicae. In 1989, he moved to Oxford University as an Erwin Schrödinger Scholar, working with Robert May. He held positions as Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College and Keble College, became a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in Biomedical Science in 1992, and was appointed Professor of Mathematical Biology at the University of Oxford in 1997.

In 1998, Nowak was recruited by the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton to head its program in theoretical biology. In 2003, he joined Harvard University with a joint appointment as Professor of Mathematics and of Biology in the Departments of Mathematics and Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. He served as Director of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics from 2003 until 2020. His research focuses on the mathematical description of evolutionary processes, including the evolution of cooperation and human language, as well as the dynamics of virus infections and human cancer. He has authored more than 500 papers and four books, including Evolutionary Dynamics: Exploring the Equations of Life (2006). Notable awards include the Weldon Memorial Prize (1996), the Akira Okubo Prize (1999), the David Starr Jordan Prize (2001), the Henry Dale Prize (2003), and the Fannie Cox Prize for excellence in science teaching (2016). He received honorary doctorates from the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi in 2010 and the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in 2015. He was elected to the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 2001.