William (Ned) Friedman
Director of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
Arnold Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
1300 Centre St.
Boston, MA 02131
Phone: 617.384.7744
Fax: 617.384.6596
Email
Website
Education
PhD Botany (1986), University of California, Berkeley
AB Biology (1981), Oberlin College
My research program focuses on the organismic interfaces between developmental, phylogenetic and evolutionary biology. Within the past fifteen years, remarkable advances in the study of the phylogenetic relationships of plants have provided the raw materials for critical studies of character evolution. Armed with hypotheses of relationships among organisms, I seek to explore how patterns of morphology, anatomy and cell biology have evolved through the modification of developmental processes. My work is primarily focused on the origin and subsequent diversification of flowering plants, Darwin’s “abominable mystery.”
Recent Publications
- Bachelier, J.B. and W.E. Friedman. 2011. Female gamete competition in an ancient angiosperm lineage. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108: 12360-12365. [pdf]
- Friedman, W.E. 2011. Plant genomics: Homoplasy heaven in a lycophyte genome. Current Biology 21: 554-556. [pdf]
- Friedman, W.E. and P.K. Diggle. 2011. Charles Darwin and the origins of plant evolutionary developmental biology. Plant Cell 23: 1194-1207. [pdf]
- Wu, C.-C., P.K. Diggle and W.E. Friedman. 2011. Female gametophyte development and double fertilization in Balsas teosinte, Zea mays subsp. parviglumis (Poaceae). Sexual Plant Reproduction 24: 219-229. [pdf]
- Madrid, E.N. and W.E. Friedman. 2010. Female gametophyte and early seed development in Peperomia (Piperaceae). American Journal of Botany 97: 1–14. [pdf]
- Madrid, E.N. and W.E. Friedman. 2009. The developmental basis of an evolutionary diversification of female gametophyte structure in Piper and Piperaceae. Annals of Botany 103: 869–884. [pdf ] [commentary]
- Friedman, W.E. and K.C. Ryerson. 2009. Reconstructing the ancestral female gametophyte of angiosperms: insights from Amborella and other ancient lineages of flowering plants. American Journal of Botany 96: 129–143. [pdf]
- Friedman, W.E. 2009. The meaning of Darwin’s “abominable mystery.” American Journal of Botany 96: 5–21. [pdf]
- Holloway, S.J. and W.E. Friedman. 2008. Embryological features of Tofieldia glutinosa and their bearing on the early diversification of monocotyledonous plants. Annals of Botany 102: 167–182. [pdf]
- Friedman, W.E., S.C.H. Barrett, P.K. Diggle, V.F. Irish, and L. Hufford. 2008. Whither plant evo-devo? Investigating the evolution of plant form: conceptual integration from the molecular to the ecological. New Phytologist 178: 468–471. [pdf]
- Friedman, W.E. 2008. Hydatellaceae are water lilies with gymnospermous tendencies. Nature 453: 94–97. [pdf ]
- Friedman, W.E., E.N. Madrid, and J.H. Williams. 2008. Origin of the fittest and survival of the fittest: relating female gametophyte development to endosperm genetics. International Journal of Plant Sciences 169: 79–92. [pdf]
Current Grants
- National Science Foundation, Division of Environmental Biology, Research Coordination Network Program, “microMORPH, Microevolutionary Molecular and Organismic Research in Plant History” (Principal Investigator; 2010-2015)
- National Science Foundation, Division of Integrative Organismal Systems, Developmental Systems Cluster, “Did the first angiosperms lack an embryo-nourishing endosperm?” (Principal Investigator; 2009-2012)