My Discipline

Following is a short FAQ-like chunk of information about the evolutionary biology discipline.

1. Students learn about genetics. They learn how to map genes within chromosomes of many organisms, how to predict the effect of a gene on the outcome of an individual, and how to suppress and help the expression of a gene through epigenetics. They also study genetic diseases and conditions and research to find cures or treatments. In short, there are many things an evolutionary biologist can do.
2. Many people with degrees in biology with any sort of emphasis on evolution go on to work in industry or academia as researchers or professors. Some go into specific areas like genetic counseling, but the majority are in academia of some sort, researching about genes and evolution and teaching to eager undergrads.
3. My junior year in high school, I took an Advanced Biology class that discussed genes and evolution for about a month, and it was my absolute favorite part of the class (and possibly my entire high school curriculum). Because of this, it was easy to make the decision to study the field in college.
4. I'm struggling to find specific leaders that are still active in 2016. All I can think of is the famous Charles Darwin who has been dead for forever, but contributed so much to our understanding of evolution by natural selection. Another dead leader is Stephen Jay Gould, who did so much in the way of evolutionary theory and won so many awards and was easily the leader when he was alive. I'll come back and add to this if I can think of anything else, but I don't think this is the most crucial process work to my project.
5. Journal of Evolutionary Biology is incredibly influential in the field of evolutionary biology. Two others would be Trends in ecology and evolution and Molecular biology and evolution.