Marla Sokolowski

In 2021, the Journal of Neurogenetics published and issue in honor of her.

Marla B. Sokolowski FRSC is a University Professor in the Departments of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto. Sokolowski is a scientist whose work is widely considered to be groundbreaking, foundational for a variety of fields, and instrumental in refutations of genetic determinism, and has, according to the Royal Society of Canada, "permanently changed the way we frame questions about individual differences in behaviour". Sokolowski's comprehensive study of the fruit fly and other animal systems, including humans, has shaped fundamental concepts in behavioural evolution, plasticity, and genetic pleiotropy. Specifically, Sokolowski is best known for her discovery of the foraging gene. Sokolowski was the 2020 recipient of the Flavelle Medal. Sokolowski is only one of two women to ever win the award- the other being Margaret Newton in 1948.

Sokolowski completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto in Zoology in 1977. Sokolowski's early research into evolutionary biology was influenced by Richard Lewontin and Douglas Wahlsten. At the time, very few scientists believed that it was possible for genes to influence normal individual differences in behaviours. This set the stage for Sokolowski's 1980 Ph.D thesis and subsequent research into behavioral genetics.

Marla Sokolowski was born in Toronto in 1955 to Ruth and Ernest Berger- the latter of which was a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to Canada where he worked as a shoe salesman. Sokolowski is married to Allen Sokolowski, who worked as a dentist and taught at the University of Toronto's School of Dentistry. They have two children: one daughter (born 1991) and one son (born 1995).