Brian Goodwin

For the baseball player, see Brian Goodwin (baseball). For the Scottish footballer, see Brian Goodwin (footballer).

Brian Goodwin in 1992

Brian Carey Goodwin (25 March 1931 – 15 July 2009) (Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, Canada - Dartington, Totnes, Devon, UK) was a Canadian mathematician and biologist, a Professor Emeritus at the Open University and a founder of theoretical biology and biomathematics. He introduced the use of complex systems and generative models in developmental biology. He suggested that a reductionist view of nature fails to explain complex features, controversially proposing the structuralist theory that morphogenetic fields might substitute for natural selection in driving evolution.[1] He was also a visible member of the Third Culture movement.[2]

  1. ^ Dickinson, W. Joseph. (1998). Form and Transformation: Generative and Relational Principles in Biology. by Gerry Webster; Brian Goodwin. The Quarterly Review of Biology. Vol. 73, No. 1. pp. 62-63.
  2. ^ Brian Goodwin obituary - The Guardian, 9 August 2009