Elizabeth Alter is an evolutionary geneticist, professor of biology at City University of New York (Graduate Center and York College), and Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History. Her research focuses on understanding how aquatic biodiversity is generated and maintained, particularly in extreme environments such as river rapids and toxic urban waters, using the tools of genomics. She received her B.A. in Anthropology and Biology from Yale University, and PhD in Biological Sciences from Stanford University.
Elizabeth Alter
Participant In These Roundtable Discussions
Sat
Apr 22nd
2017
Apr 22nd
2017
Watch
Design in Nature
This roundtable examines the concept of “design” in nature, considering whether the apparent order, efficiency, and aesthetic coherence of natural forms can be understood without invoking external teleology. It explores how ideas of immanent purpose, as discussed in classical philosophy (e.g., Aristotelian thought), relate to modern perspectives grounded in Darwinian evolution and physical first principles, and whether principles from physics, biology, and complex systems can account for the emergence of functional and adaptive structures in nature.