Durham, NC - The Linnean Society of London will award Duke's Mohamed Noor a Darwin-Wallace medal on Feb. 12, 2009, -- Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. Noor, who studies how species form, using fruitflies as a model organism, is among 13 evolutionary biologists being awarded the medal, which was last given out 50 years ago.

His fellow awardees include the late Stephen Jay Gould and John Maynard-Smith, Lynn Margulis, and Rosemary and Peter Grant. Noor is an associate professor in the department of biology.