Department of Biology, BYU

Dr. Duane Jeffery has been involved with Biology at BYU for more than 38 years. A native of Delta, Utah his most recent endeavor has been promoting the teaching of evolution in Utah schools.

"Frankly, it's been a lot of fun," he said. "There's been no opposition, and we've had nothing but a good relationship with administrators and teachers."

Before joining the BYU faculty, Dr. Jeffery attended Utah State University, where he earned his Bachelor's and Master's in Wildlife Management and Ecology. He studied the relationships between elk, deer, and cattle, and it was then that he decided he wanted to go into evolutionary research.

"In order to study evolution, I felt I had to switch my emphasis into either genetics or paleontology," he said. "So I shifted to genetics... it was a very difficult change."

Dr. Jeffery was then accepted into U.C. Berkeley where he completed his second Master's and earned his Ph.D in zoology and genetics.

"It was the most intelligently stimulating and challenging place I've ever been," he said. "It was also during the years of all the student riots. They started right after I got there and ended right after I left--you can draw your own conclusions!"

After graduating from Berkeley, he focused his skills towards the study of Drosophila, colloquially called a "fruit fly" or pomace fly, and his research drew him to the study of chromosome position effects and mutations in the fly.

"Drosophila are really quite incredible," he said. "They're apparently the most speciose genus of any animal group on earth."

This means that there are more species of Drosophila than of any other animal genus.

"There are well over 600 named species alone, and many are just sitting in collections awaiting formal description. Some species exist nowhere else except in certain places on certain tropical islands."

Dr. Jeffery's research has taken him around the world to places like the Hawaiian Islands, the Great Basin, and Mexico. He was invited to teach at BYU before he had even finished his Ph.D, and he gladly accepted a position as a geneticist.

Dr. Jeffery has described his time spent at BYU as both "challenging and rewarding," and he now teaches Evolution classes Biology 420 and Biology 421.

Contact information:
Duane Jeffery duane_jeffery@byu.edu
Office: 589 WIDB
(801) 422-2155

-Emily Thornock, Biology Public Relations

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