Robert Wayne

Robert Wayne is a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA.  Dr. Wayne has long studied dog domestication beginning with his PhD work on morphology and development, which was followed by post-doctoral research at the National Cancer Institute with Steve O’Brien on the genetic analysis of domestic and wild canines. For the last 25 years, his studies ranged from ancient DNA, to complete genome analysis and gene expression. His focus has been on understanding the timing, place and context of dog evolution and how it was influenced by human society. He has published over 250 works, on various aspects of evolutionary biology but with a focus on carnivores.