Dr. Doolittle’s 45-year career at Dalhousie has been defined by just this sort of disruptive, “what if” approach to science. While a lot of microbiologists do their most important work in front of a microscope, many of Dr. Doolittle’s biggest contributions to the field have grown out of the deep, often contrarian thinking he’s done in between visits to the lab.

It’s an approach that has helped cement his status as one of the world’s top molecular biologists and a trailblazer working on the frontiers of evolutionary biology. And it’s also one of the many reasons he’s receiving the 2017 Killam Prize in the Natural Sciences from the Canada Council for the Arts.

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