People like Marlene Zuk

Marlene Zuk (born May 20, 1956) is an American evolutionary biologist and behavioral ecologist. She worked as professor of biology at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) until she transferred to the University of Minnesota in 2012. Her studies involve sexual selection and parasites.

Zuk was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and she is a native of Los Angeles. Living in the city, she became interested in insects at a young age. At the University of California, Santa Barbara, Zuk started majoring in English, but decided to switch to Biology. After earning her bachelor's degree, she wrote and taught for three years.

In 1982, she and W. D. Hamilton proposed the "good genes" hypothesis of sexual selection. Zuk started attending the University of Michigan in 1986 and earned her Doctor of Philosophy. She completed her postdoctoral research at the University of New Mexico. She joined the UCR faculty in 1989. In April 2012, Zuk and her husband John Rotenberry transferred to the University of Minnesota, where they both work at its College of Biological Sciences.