Matthew Tontonoz

Matt is a PhD candidate in the History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) Program at ASU. He is interested in the history and philosophy of biology, particularly genetics, as well as the history of the race concept and ideologies of genetic determinism. For his dissertation, he is chronicling the history of NIH-sponsored human genome variation projects as they relate to health. Matt is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Embryo Project Encyclopedia (embryo.asu.edu) and an instructor for the Embryo Project Writing Seminar. He studied biology and American Studies as an undergraduate at Wesleyan University and earned a master's degree in the History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylvania. Before returning to graduate school, he spent ten years as a science writer in New York City. He is co-author of an undergraduate biology textbook geared toward non-majors called Biology for a Changing World, and is interested in ways that HPS can improve undergraduate biology education.