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Great Lives from History: Latinos

Francisco Ayala

by Dennis W. Cheek

Spanish-born scientist, educator, and philosopher

One of the leading evolutionary biologists of the twentieth century, Ayala has made fundamental contributions to the fields of genetics, molecular biology, evolution, philosophy of biology, and the dialogue on science and religion.

Areas of achievement: Science and technology; education; religion and theology

Early Life

Francisco José Ayala (ah-YAH-lah) was born on March 12, 1934 in Madrid, Spain, to Francisco Ayala and Soledad Pereda Ayala. He was the fourth of six children. Ayala grew up during the Francisco Franco dictatorship and attended Catholic primary and secondary schools. His interest in science was stimulated by a priest in lower secondary school who passionately taught about scientific discoveries.

Francisco Ayala.

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(AP Photo)

Ayala elected to study physics at the University of Madrid, receiving his bachelor of science degree in 1955. While an undergraduate, he encountered the work of the Jesuit priest and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. This sparked his interest in pursuing the priesthood. Ayala entered the Pontifical Faculty of San Esteban in Salamanca. While there, he studied under Antonio de Zulueta, the leading Spanish geneticist.

Upon his ordination as a Dominican priest in 1960, Ayala left for Columbia University to study genetics under the famous Ukranian-born Eastern Orthodox geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky. He received his Ph.D. in 1964 with a thesis on fruit flies. He left the priesthood the same year. Dobzhansky moved to Rockefeller University that same year and brought Ayala with him as a research assistant. From. 1965 to 1967, he taught at Providence College and then returned to Rockefeller University as an assistant professor of biology, working with Dobzhansky until 1971 on measuring the rate of evolutionary change at the genetic level. Dobzhansky served as best man at Ayala’s wedding in 1968 to Mary Henderson. Two sons, Francisco José and Carlos Alberto, issued from this marriage, which ended in divorce in 1985. Ayaka married the Czech ecologist Dr. Hana Lostakova that same year.

In 1971, Ayala accepted a post as assistant professor at the University of California at Davis (UC Davis) and also became a U.S. citizen. He advanced to full professor in 1974. Dobzhansky joined Ayala at UC Davis and served there until his death in 1975, and the two colleagues produced an impressive body of genetics work that altered scientific understanding of the processes of evolutionary change.

Life’s Work

Throughout the 1970’s, Ayala’s laboratory pioneered new techniques for the study of proteins and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) at the molecular level. It became possible to compare the genetic diversity of species in various environments and measure with far greater precision the process of evolutionary change, which was conclusively shown to vary in light of different factors, including the stability of the environments in which the subjects lived. The range of papers produced addressed fundamental questions in paleontology, evolutionary biology, genetics, and molecular biology.

By the time of Ayala’s election as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1977) and the Medal of the College de France (1979), he was an influential evolutionary biologist. He became interested in Chagas disease while leading some expeditions to Latin America in the early 1980’s and, working with colleague Michel Tibayrenc, produced a series of breakthrough studies that showed how asexual reproduction of the parasitic protozoa that caused the disease occurred. This led to the development of vaccines and drugs that targeted key elements of this process, interrupting the spread of this disease as well as a number of others.

Ayala continued to make fundamental contributions to the genetic study of disease by reporting in 2009 that a form of deadly malaria in humans originated from a parasite carried to humans from chimpanzees, possibly via a single mosquito. In 2010, he reported that the disease also had been transmitted to gorillas, meaning that eradicating it from humans alone would not stop its spread. Work of this nature led to many awards, including the 2001 National Medal of Science from President George W. Bush, election to the National Academy of Sciences (1980) and many other national and international scientific bodies, and serving as president of Sigma Xi (2004) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1994-1995). In 2003, he began serving as a distinguished university professor within the University of California system (its highest honor) and held joint appointments at UC Davis in an endowed chair as a full professor in biological sciences, ecology, evolutionary biology, logic, philosophy, and philosophy of science; he has contributed fundamental research and insights to all of these fields.

Ayala is a staunch opponent of creationism and intelligent design and served as a key witness in McLean v. Arkansas (1981), which challenged an Arkansas law that required the teaching of creationism alongside evolution in public schools. The law was ruled unconstitutional, as the judge deemed creationism to be a religious belief, not science. Ayala also led the panels at the National Academy of Sciences that produced three editions of Science, Evolution, and Creationism, and has published numerous books, articles, and lectures for the general public on evolution and religion. In 2010, he received the Templeton Prize in recognition of building understanding among religious communities about evolutionary science and explaining why it is no threat to religion but rather a bulwark for it, especially as it relates to the age-old theological problem of evil.

Significance

Ayala has made some of the most important discoveries of the twentieth century about the process of evolution and has contributed substantially to human understanding of issues at the intersections of biology, philosophy, logic, ecology, theology, and religion. He is a passionate professional scientist who has made significant contributions to improve scientific literacy on the part of nonscientists and helped ensure that evolutionary science holds its rightful place in school curricula and the wider culture.

Citation Types

Type

Format

MLA 9th

Cheek, Dennis W. "Francisco Ayala." Great Lives from History: Latinos, edited by Carmen Tafolla & Martha P. Cotera, Salem Press, 2012. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GLL_10013240005401001.

APA 7th

Cheek, D. W. (2012). Francisco Ayala. In C. Tafolla & M. P. Cotera (Eds.), Great Lives from History: Latinos. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.

CMOS 17th

Cheek, Dennis W. "Francisco Ayala." Edited by Carmen Tafolla & Martha P. Cotera. Great Lives from History: Latinos. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2012. Accessed October 22, 2025. online.salempress.com.

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