Joseph L. Graves, Jr. is a Professor of Evolutionary Biology at Arizona State University West. He completed doctoral studies and received his PhD in 1988 from Wayne State University.

He is engaged in an examination of the evolution of life history and physiological performance in Drosophila. A particular application of this research has been to the evolutionary theory of aging. Selection for delayed reproduction has shown that postponed senescent phenotypes are produced and that these result from genetic correlations that exist between various subcomponents of fitness. Currently his work is attempting to determine if general postponed aging phenotypes will be produced by parallel selection regimes in closely related Drosophila species. This work has biomedical importance in that it will determine whether mammalian model systems for postponed senescence might be efficacious for understanding human aging.

In addition, he is interested in the history and philosophy of science as it relates to the biology of race and racism in western society. He belives that there are still significant academic and popular views of race that are mired in the biological determinism of the 19th century and the application of proper scientific method and philosophy, along with quantitative genetics reveals the underlying racist ideology of these programs.

For more information about Dr. Graves please visit his website.

Back to 2002 Videoconference Homepage

Return to the Minority Health Home Page 

Updated 04/16/02raj, 05/06/02raj minority_health@unc.edu