John C. Sanford

John C. Sanford (born in 1950) is an American plant geneticist.

Academic career

Sanford graduated in 1976 from the University of Minnesota with a BSc in horticulture. He then went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he received an MSc in 1978 and a PhD in 1980 in plant breeding and genetics. Between 1980 and 1986 Sanford was an assistant professor at Cornell University, and then from 1986 to 1998 he was an associate professor. Although retiring in 1998, Sanford continues at Cornell as a courtesy associate professor. He held an honorary Adjunct Associate Professor of Botany at Duke University. Sanford has published over 80 scientific publications in peer reviewed journals.

Inventions

Sanford is a prolific inventor with more than 30 patents. At Cornell Sanford and colleagues developed the "Biolistic Particle Delivery System" or so-called "gene gun" [Sanford, J. C., T. M. Klein, E. D. Wolf, and N. Allen. 1987. Delivery of substances into cells and tissues using a particle bombardment process. "Journal of Particulate Science and Technology" 5:27-37.] [Klein, T. M., E. D. Wolf, R. Wu, and J. C. Sanford. 1987. High-velocity microprojectiles for delivering nucleic acids into living cells. "Nature" 327:70-73.] . He is also the co-inventor of the Pathogen-derived Resistance (PDR) process and the co-inventor of the genetic vaccination process. He was given the "Distinguished Inventor Award" by the Central New York Patent Law Association in 1990 and 1995. He has founded two biotechnology companies, Sanford Scientific and Biolistics. In 1998 he retired on the proceeds from the sale of his biotech companies, but continued at Cornell as a courtesy associate professor.

Recent research

Sanford has written a book entitled "Genetic Entropy & the Mystery of the Genome" (2005) [cite book|author=Sanford, John C.|title=Genetic Entropy & the Mystery of the Genome|year=2005|publisher=Ivan Press|id=ISBN] in which he claims that the genome is deteriorating and therefore could not have evolved in the way specified by the Modern evolutionary synthesis. Sanford's claims have received little attention from the scientific community. Sanford has published two peer reviewed papers modeling genetic entropy. [Sanford, J.C., Baumgardner, J., Gibson, P., Brewer, W., ReMine, W. (2007). Mendel‚s Accountant: a biologically realistic forward-time population genetics program. SCPE 8(2): 147-165. http://www.scpe.org.] , [Sanford, J.C., Baumgardner, J., Gibson, P., Brewer, W., ReMine, W. (2007). Using computer simulation to understand mutation accumulation dynamics and genetic load. In Shi et al. (Eds.), ICCS 2007, Part II, LNCS 4488 (pp.386-392), Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg.]

Origin theories

Formerly an atheist, since the mid-1980s Sanford has looked into Theistic Evolution (1985-late nineties), Old Earth Creation (late nineties), and Young Earth Creation (2000-present). According to his own words, he did not fully reject Darwinian evolution until the year 2000. An advocate of intelligent design, in 2005 Sanford testified in the Kansas evolution hearings on behalf of intelligent design, during which he denied the principle of common descent and "humbly offered ... that we were created by a special creation, by God." He also stated that he believed the age of the Earth was "Between 5 [,000] and 100,000" years. [ [http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/kansas/kangaroo4.html#p1705 Transcripts of the Kansas Evolution Hearings] Talkorigins.org] An analogy Sanford uses to illustrate alleged evidence of design is that of a car versus a junkyard: "A car is complex, but so is a junkyard. However, a car is complex in a way that is very specific — which is why it works. It requires a host of very intelligent engineers to specify its complexity, so it is a functional whole." [ [http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=3032&program=CSC%20-%20Views%20and%20News Intelligent Design: Professors discuss Teaching the Controversial Subject] Xiaowei Cathy Tang. Cornell Daily Sun, November 15, 2005] Intelligent design proponent William Dembski touts the accomplishments of Sanford as evidence of the alleged scientific status of intelligent design [ [http://www.uncommondescent.com/index.php/archives/1039/ ID at Cornell, John Sanford and Allen MacNeill] Dembski. Uncommondescent.com, April 14, 2006] and has endorsed Sanford's book, "Genetic Entropy & the Mystery of the Genome". [ [http://www.uncommondescent.com/index.php/archives/1173 Respected Cornell geneticist rejects Darwinism in his recent book] Dembski. Uncommondescent.com, June 1, 2006]

References

External links

* [http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/hort/faculty/sanford/ Homepage at Cornell University]
* [http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/hort/faculty/sanford/sanford_pubs.html Sanford publications]