Skip to content
Fellows Directory

Steve Jones

Professor Steve Jones FRS

Fellow

Elected: 2012

Biography

Steve Jones is a geneticist and leading science communicator on evolution and genetics. He is a world expert on the genetics of snails and has also studied evolution in fruit flies and humans. However, he is most widely known as a highly successful broadcaster and writer.

He is an ecological geneticist, examining the relationship between habitat and genetic traits such as variation in snail shell colour. Investigating the effect of heat on snails, Steve showed that dark- and light-coloured snails choose to expose themselves to different amounts of sunshine. He is also investigating whether or not there have been changes in snail gene frequency in response to climate change.

Steve has published many popular science books on genetics and evolution and has written and presented a television series on human genetics. He has also advised the BBC on their science reporting. He is a winner of the Royal Society’s Faraday Prize for excellence in popular science communication.

Professional positions

Senior Researcher and Fellow, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London (UCL)

Interests and expertise

Subject groups

Keywords

behavioural genetics, Human evolution, Snail population genetics, thermal ecology

Awards

  •

    Michael Faraday Prize

    For his numerous, wide ranging contributions to the public understanding of science in areas such as human evolution and variation, race, sex, inherited disease and genetic manipulation through his many broadcasts on radio and television, his lectures, popular science books, and his regular science column in The Daily Telegraph and contributions to other newspaper media.

  • Michael Faraday Prize and Lecture

    For his numerous, wide ranging contributions to the public understanding of science in areas such as human evolution and variation, race, sex, inherited disease and genetic manipulation through his many broadcasts on radio and television, his lectures, popular science books, and his regular science column in The Daily Telegraph and contributions to other newspaper media.