Neil Shubin

Neil Shubin earned his Ph.D. in organismic and evolutionary biology from Harvard in 1987. In 2006, Shubin and his team found the fossil Tiktaalik roseae, an important intermediary form between fish and land animals. This discovery catapulted Shubin into the public eye, as he was named ABC News’ “person of the week,” gave several interviews about the fossil, and wrote Your Inner Fish to help educate the public about scientific topics. Since then, Shubin helped produce a television show under the same name to bring contemporary science topics into the classroom. Shubin was elected into the National Academy of Sciences in 2011, and he now works as a professor at the University of Chicago, focusing his research on limb development. Shubin has published numerous articles in scientific journals regarding his research on fossils like Tiktaalik, the embryonic development of salamanders, and gene expression in fish fins. He published his second popular science book in 2013, titled The Universe Within, that traces elements’ paths from stars to fossils.