Richard Lewontin | |
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| Born | Richard Charles Lewontin March 29, 1929 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | July 4, 2021 (aged 92) Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Alma mater | Harvard University (BS) Columbia University (MS, PhD) |
| Known for | Evolutionary biology Population genetics Lewontin's Fallacy Not in Our Genes The Dialectical Biologist Spandrel (biology) |
| Awards | Sewall Wright Award (1994) Crafoord Prize (2015) Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal (2017) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Genetics Evolutionary biology Population genetics |
| Institutions | Harvard University North Carolina State University University of Rochester University of Chicago Columbia University |
| Thesis | The Effects of Population Density and Composition on Viability in Drosophila melanogaster (1955) |
| Doctoral advisor | Theodosius Dobzhansky[1] |
| Doctoral students | Adriana Briscoe Jerry Coyne Joseph Felsenstein Martin Kreitman[2] Russell Lande |
Richard Charles Lewontin (March 29, 1929 – July 4, 2021[3]) was an American evolutionary biologist, mathematician, geneticist, and social commentator. A leader in developing the mathematical basis of population genetics and evolutionary theory, he applied techniques from molecular biology, such as gel electrophoresis, to questions of genetic variation and evolution.
In a pair of seminal 1966 papers co-authored with J. L. Hubby in the journal Genetics,[4][5] Lewontin helped set the stage for the modern field of molecular evolution. In 1979, he and Stephen Jay Gould introduced the term "spandrel" into evolutionary theory. From 1973 to 1998, he held an endowed chair in zoology and biology at Harvard University, and from 2003 until his death in 2021 he was a research professor there.
From a sociological perspective, Lewontin strongly opposed genetic determinism[6] and neodarwinism as expressed in the fields of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology.
Previously, as a member of Science for the People, he denounced the involvement of prominent scientists in Pentagon programs aimed at developing weapons for the Vietnam War. From the 1990s, he condemned the lobbying of GMOs by the "genetic-industrial complex".
- ^ Richard Lewontin at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- ^ Kreitman, Martin Edward (1983). Nucleotide Sequence Variation of Alcohol dehydrogenase in Drosophila melanogaster (PhD thesis). Harvard University. ProQuest 303271509.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
NYT obitwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Lewontin, R. C.; Hubby, J. L. (1966). "A molecular approach to the study of genic heterozygosity in natural populations. II. Amount of variation and degree of heterozygosity in natural populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura". Genetics. 54 (2): 595–609. doi:10.1093/genetics/54.2.595. PMC 1211186. PMID 5968643.
- ^ Hubby, J. L.; Lewontin, R. C. (1966). "A molecular approach to the study of genic heterozygosity in natural populations. I. The number of alleles at different loci in Drosophila pseudoobscura". Genetics. 54 (2): 577–594. doi:10.1093/genetics/54.2.577. PMC 1211185. PMID 5968642.
- ^ Peters, Ted (2003). Playing God? genetic determinism and human freedom (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge. pp. 29–31. ISBN 978-0-415-94249-2.