was a
Japanese biologist best known for introducing the
neutral theory of molecular evolution in 1968, in collaboration with
Tomoko Ohta. He became one of the most influential theoretical
population geneticists. He is remembered in genetics for his innovative use of
diffusion equations to calculate the probability of fixation of beneficial, deleterious, or neutral
alleles. Combining theoretical population genetics with
molecular evolution data, he also developed the neutral theory of molecular evolution in which
genetic drift is the main force changing
allele frequencies.
James F. Crow, himself a renowned population geneticist, considered Kimura to be one of the two greatest evolutionary geneticists, along with
Gustave Malécot, after the great trio of the
Modern evolutionary synthesis,
Ronald Fisher,
J.B.S. Haldane and
Sewall Wright.