James Lawson Cornette was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1935. He received his B.S. (1955) from West Texas State College, and his M.A. (1959) and his Ph.D. (1962) in Mathematics from the University of Texas.



Cornette joined the faculty at Iowa State University as an Assistant Professor (1962) and was promoted to Associate Professor (1966) and Full Professor in 1970. During a staff improvement leave, he conducted research at the Laboratory of Mathematical Biology, National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. He was also a guest lecturer (1968-1973) for the Mathematical Association of America. He retired from his position at Iowa State University in 2000 to enter the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Kansas to study paleontology.



Cornette’s main area of research was in population genetics and mathematical models in physiology. He has done research in bioinformatics, DNA, and the immune system.



Cornette has won the Amoco Outstanding Teacher Award (1982) from Iowa State University and received a Fulbright-Hayes National Scholarship (1973 - 1974) to lecture in Malaysia. He was a member of Mathematical Association of America, American Mathematical Society, and the Society for Industrial and Implied Mathematics. He served on the Iowa State University Faculty Council (1975-1978), the Iowa State University Long Range Academic Planning Committee (1976-1978) and the University Curriculum Committee (1975-2000). He was the chairman for the Sciences and Humanities Curriculum Committee (1975-2000) and served on the Bachelor of Liberal Arts Committee.



Cornette is married to the former Carolyn Christian, and they have two children named James T. and Francis Elizabeth (Betsy).