David Hull, Dressler Professor in the Humanities at Northwestern University, is the author of five books and over a hundred papers on biological systematics, evolutionary biology, and philosophy of biology. He is past president of the Society for Systematic Zoology. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

One of the world's leading philosophers on evolutionary theory, while president of the Philosophy of Science Association in 1985 and of the the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology in 1991, Hull was instrumental in the establishment of policies prohibiting the sponsorship of meetings in any state in which sodomy is illegal.

I don't go to states that have sodomy laws to present papers or anything. When people ask me to present papers [in those states], I write back and say, "I don't go to states where I'm a criminal." It may be impolite to raise these issues, but once they're raised, I've found, people are willing to go along with it.