So You Studied Bio?UTM Research Opportunities Program

The Field Guide

BIOGRAPHIES

Every guest who has sat down for an episode. Open one to read the full card — the pull tab on its right opens the dossier behind it.

Specimen N° 01 — Biology Beyond Earth ↗
Dr. Jonathan Stone
Specimen N° 01

If you’re passionate about what you do, the rest tends to follow.

— Doc Roc

Dr. Jonathan Stone

“Doc Roc”

Dr. Stone runs one of Canada's most interdisciplinary science institutes and helped create the country's first graduate program in astrobiology—and he does not hold a degree in astrobiology. He is a computational and evolutionary biologist by training whose work now spans bioinformatics, development, genetics, ecology, and the question of whether life can survive interplanetary transit. His episode opens on that gap deliberately: how do you end up leading a field you never formally studied?

Full Dossier

Professor & SHARCNET Chair in Computational Biology; Director, Origins Institute

  1. Pre-2004

    Trains and establishes himself as a computational and evolutionary biologist at McMaster, working across development, genetics, and bioinformatics.

  2. 2004

    The Origins Institute is founded at McMaster; Stone serves as founding Associate Director alongside Director Ralph Pudritz.

  3. 2005

    The institute hosts its first major meeting, Astrobiology & the Origin of Life, which sets astrobiology as its prime research directive.

  4. 2013

    The Origins Institute launches Canada's first Collaborative Graduate Program in Astrobiology, spanning five academic units and six graduate programs.

  5. 2010s

    Publishes on tardigrade tolerance to hypergravity — the first work of its kind, with implications for lithopanspermia, the possible spread of life via meteoritic rock.

  6. Present

    Serves as Director of the Origins Institute and holds the SHARCNET Chair in Computational Biology.

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