The shape of discovery: a journey through genetics, coevolution, and a scientific life

The Genetics Society of America Medal honors an individual member of the Society for their contributions to the field of genetics at the mid-career level.Whiteman is recognized for his impactful contributions to the field through genetic and evolutionary studies on herbivorous insects, their host plants, and their natural enemies.Additionally, his use of genetic tools, including genome editing, has led to a better understanding of herbivore resistance in plants and plant defenses.His insightful leadership allowed for the retracing of the adaptive walk taken by the monarch butterfly's lineage over many years resulting from a study that used CRISPR-Cas9 to characterize candidate toxin resistance mutations from the monarch butterfly into Drosophila melanogaster.