Biographical Sketches of Modern Evolutionary Theorists

In this section we have provided brief overviews of the lives and works of numerous evolutionary theorists who either participated in or worked after the modern synthesis. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all important evolutionary theorists; if you don't find the theorist you seek, please visit the Links and References section below. For evolutionary theorists working before the modern synthesis, please see Early Theorist Biographies.

August Weismann (1834-1914)

August Weismann was not really part of the modern synthesis, but his pioneering work on germ lines was the catalyst that sparked the argument leading to the unification of genetics and natural selection. Weismann carefully distinguished between what he called the soma, or the body, and the germ-plasm, or the hereditary material. He emphasized that the germ-plasm was exclusively responsible for heredity, and that the soma had no influence on hereditary traits. His theory absolutely excluded any inheritance of acquired characteristics, which caused a major and long-lasting debate between two schools of thought, one neo-Lamarckian and one neo-Darwinian (the name of his theory). His emphasis on other aspects of Darwin's work, especially the primacy of natural selection, also spawned vigorous debate and inspired other theorists to carefully evaluate their positions.

Thomas Hunt Morgan (1866-1945)

Thomas Hunt Morgan was the co-founder of modern genetics. Initially a mutationist of the Mendelian school, he originally opposed Darwinism and chromosomes in addition to inheritance of acquired characteristics. After detailed experiments with fruit flies, he showed that evolution does occur as a result of accumulation of minor mutations, and converted to Darwinism.

Theodosius Dobzhansky (?-1975)

Theodosius Dobzhansky was a Russian-born geneticist who emigrated to the United States. He worked closely with Thomas Hunt Morgan in developing and analyzing Mendelian inheritance, and he was a key figure in the beginning of the modern synthesis.

Ernst Mayr (1904-)

Ernst Mayr is a German-born biologist who emigrated to the United States. His work in the study of population dynamics and speciation from a genetic perspective led him to become one of the originators of the modern synthesis. He has also emphasized taxonomy based on evolutionary relationships and defined the concept of species in genetic terms.

George Simpson (1902-1984)

George Simpson was the only paleontologist who participated in the development of the modern synthesis. His work with mammalian fossils led to the proposal of a much more detailed classification of them; many elements of this are still used today. He was an extremely prolific writer, authoring well over 100 scientific papers and several popular books.

Ronald Fisher (1890-1962)

Ronald Fisher, a British biologist and geneticist, was one of the primary authors of the modern synthesis. His monumental work The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection is now considered a standard in the field of evolutionary biology. Fisher also utilized statistical analyses of genetic factors in populations, and in the process invented many new and useful statistical methods. Along with Sewall Wright and J.B.S. Haldane, Fisher created the modern field of population genetics.

Richard Goldschmidt (1878-1958)

Richard Goldschmidt was an evolutionary theorist who disagreed with the idea of the accumulation of small random mutations as responsible for evolution. He proposed the idea of the "hopeful monster" - an extremely large mutation resulting in the production of a new species in a single step. An example of this theory might be a reptile hatching from an amphibian egg. This theory has been disproven and is now completely discredited; however, Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge's theory of punctuated equilibrium has been misunderstood as a resurrection of Goldschmidt's theory.

William Donald Hamilton (1936-2000)

William Hamilton was a profoundly influential biologist whose classic solution of the problem of group-based animal behavior has become the most cited paper in all of science (Hamilton Memorial Website). He was among the first to recognize the power of a gene-based view of natural selection, and he used this view to resolve the apparent paradox of altruism and self-sacrifice, especially among kin, observed in some species. He later became interested in parasites and how they influence the evolution of their hosts; he was also a strong proponent of the theory that the AIDS virus was spread during testing of a polio vaccine in Africa. He died recently from severe malaria after an expedition to the Congo.

John Maynard Smith (1920-)

John Maynard Smith is a professor at the University of Sussex in England. Maynard Smith is best known for his development of game theory and its applications to evolutionary theory, especially the simulation of evolving populations and animal behavior. He also developed the concept of the evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) as a major factor in determining animal behavior. He has been a prolific writer, authoring numerous scientific papers and publishing several books.

George Williams

George Williams, a major contributor to modern evolutionary biology, was one of the first to appreciate the power of gene-based selection (along with William Hamilton). His work in this area has been deeply influential, as have his criticisms of various non-Darwinian "explanations" for the evolution of life.

Edward Wilson (1929-)

Edward Wilson, founder of modern sociobiology and evolutionary psychology, was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1929. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he has occupied various faculty positions. The main subject of his empirical research is ants and how they live in colonies. He was a major contributor to the modern theory of how ecosystems decline, and his classic book Sociobiology launched the fields of inquiry now known generally as evolutionary psychology. The book, which applied Darwinism to the evolution of the human mind, created a storm of controversy, drawing criticism from proponents of the Standard Social Science Model. In time, the term "sociobiology" became so politically loaded that scientists John Tooby and Leda Cosmides has to reintroduce the field under the new name of evolutionary psychology.

Wilson is also known not only as a great evolutionary theorist, but also as a brilliant writer. His book On Human Nature won a Pulitzer Prize, as did his memoir Naturalist. In recent years he has become an outspoken opponent of environmental destruction, focusing mainly on the ensuing loss of biodiversity.

Robert Trivers (1941-)

Robert Trivers, born in Washington, D.C. in 1943, had an unusual career before entering the field of biology. He earned a B.A. in U.S. History from Harvard in 1965; he then wrote and illustrated books for children. Only later did he return to Harvard to study biology, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1972. He is best known within evolutionary biology for his work with the selfish gene theory, especially its relationship to the development of reciprocal altruism and the conditions necessary for its emergence. He has also worked on issues relating to parental investment and kin selection, the conflicts between the genetic interests of parents and offspring, and animal social behavior. His current interests include conflicts of genetic interests within a genome, the relationship between sexual selection and parasites, and the evolutionary basis of self-deception, especially in humans.

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