Sean B. Carroll, Distinguished University Professor and Balo-Simon Chair of Biology at the University of Maryland and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), is an internationally recognized biologist.
Dr. Carroll is an award-winning author, Emmy-winning film producer, and educational leader who has been called “the greatest science storyteller of our time.” He is the author of six books for general audiences, as well as a regular feature for the New York Times Science Times, and in 2016 received the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science.
Dr. Carroll’s pioneering scientific research has centered on the genes that control animal body patterns and play major roles in the evolution of animal diversity. Awards and honors include the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Sciences, the Stephen Jay Gould Prize for the advancement of the public understanding of evolution, and the Viktor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Award from the Society for Developmental Biology, among others, and he is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the European Molecular Biology Organization, as well as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Dr. Carroll was also the architect of HHMI’s filmmaking initiative to bring stories about science and nature to broad audiences, and head of Tangled Bank Studios until late 2023, where he served as executive producer of nearly 50 feature or educational films. He earned his doctorate in immunology from Tufts University Medical School, and his bachelor’s in biology from Washington University in St. Louis.
Professor Néva Meyer will present Dr. Carroll for the degree of Doctor of Science.