The Case of Ohta Tomoko: A Woman Geneticist in theNeutralist-Selectionist Evolution Controversy

摘要

This paper outlines the life and career of the Japanese woman geneticist Ohta Tomoko.Although Ohta faced various difficulties in her life, aggressive self-promotion does notfeature on her route to success. Rather initial mentorship by some family members,her teachers and supervisors such as Kihara Hitoshi, Kojima Ken, and Kimura Motoo,helped her realize her expertise and later promotion of her work by colleagues abroadwas arguably most crucial to her career. The paper also examines Ohta's involvementin Kimura's "neutral theory" of evolution at the molecular level and her ideas about itsproblems and their resolution through the development of a theory of her own, the nearlyneutral theory.