James A. Shapiro, Professor in the University of Chicago’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, is a leading bacterial geneticist, the discoverer of transposable elements in bacteria, and the key researcher involved in first organizing the field of mobile genetic elements. The earliest proponent of “natural genetic engineering” as a basic feature of evolution, he has been a leading scientific critic of orthodox evolutionary theory for 20 years.
Shapiro is co-editor of DNA Insertion Elements, Episomes, and Plasmids (1977, Cold Spring Harbor Press), editor of Mobile Genetic Elements (1983, Academic Press), and co-editor of Bacteria as Multicellular Organisms (1997, Oxford University Press). He holds a Ph.D. in genetics from Cambridge University.