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Richard Levins
Levins in 2015
Born
June 1, 1930
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died
January 19, 2016(2016-01-19) (aged 85)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Nationality
American
Ethnicity
Ukrainian Jewish heritage
Alma mater
Cornell University (agriculture and mathematics), Columbia University
Known for
mathematical ecology, political activism, population genetics, evolution in changing environments, farming in Cuba, and metapopulations (a Marxist theory of biology)
Societies
US National Academy of Sciences (resigned), Cuban Academy of Sciences, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation * American Public Health Association
Spouse(s)
Rosario Morales (1950), died 2011; 3 children: Aurora Levins Morales, born February 24, 1954, Indiera Baja, Maricao, Puerto Rico, Ricardo Levins Morales,[1] Alejandro 'Jandro' Levins[2]
Scientific career
Fields
mathematical ecology, evolutionary biology, scientific modelling, loop analysis, complexity, philosophy of science, “looking at the whole”
Institutions
University of Puerto Rico (1961 to 1967), University of Havana, New York University, University of Chicago, Harvard University, Harvard School of Public Health
Thesis
Theory of fitness in a heterogeneous environment, published by Essex Institute, New York, 1965(1965)
External image
Dr. Richard Levins, teaching
Richard Levins (June 1, 1930 – January 19, 2016)[3] was a Marxist biologist, a population geneticist, biomathematician, mathematical ecologist, and philosopher of science[4][5][6] who researched diversity in human populations. Until his death, Levins was a university professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a long-time political activist. He was best known for his work on evolution and complexity in changing environments and on metapopulations.
Levins also had written on philosophical issues in biology and modelling. One of his influential articles is "The Strategy of Model Building in Population Biology". He has influenced a number of contemporary philosophers of biology.[citation needed] Levins often boasted publicly that he was a 'fourth generation Marxist' and often had said that the methodology in his Evolution in Changing Environments was based upon the introduction to Marx's Grundrisse, the author's notes (not published until 1939) for Das Kapital. With the evolutionary geneticist Richard Lewontin, Levins had written a number of articles on methodology, philosophy, and social implications of biology. Many of these are collected in The Dialectical Biologist. In 2007, the duo published a second thematic collection of essays titled Biology Under the Influence: Dialectical Essays on Ecology, Agriculture, and Health.[7]
Also with Lewontin, Levins had co-authored a number of satirical articles criticizing sociobiology, systems modeling in ecology, and other topics under the pseudonym Isadore Nabi. Levins and Lewontin managed to place a ridiculous biography of Nabi and his achievements in American Men of Science, thereby showing how little editorial care and fact-checking work went on in that respected reference work.
^"Ricardo Levins Morales Art Store - Political Art Posters, Note Cards, Buttons Minneapolis, MN RLM Arts".
^LinkedIn profile of Alejandro Levins
^In memoriam: Richard Levins, ecologist, biomathematician, and philosopher of science
^Weisberg, M. Richard Levins’ Philosophy of Science, Biology and Philosophy, November 2006, Volume 21, Issue 5, pp 603-605, First online: 05 January 2007, accessed 1/22/2016
^Wimsatt, W. Richard Levins as Philosophical Revolutionary, Biology and Philosophy, January 2001, Volume 16, Issue 1, pp 103-108, accessed 1/22/2016
^Winther, R.S. On the dangers of making scientific models ontologically independent: taking Richard Levins’ warnings seriously, Biology and Philosophy, November 2006, Volume 21, Issue 5, pp 703-724, First online: 16 January 2007, accessed 1/22/2016
^Lewontin, R., and Levins, R. 2007 (November 1). Biology Under the Influence: Dialectical Essays on Ecology, Agriculture, and Health, Monthly Review Press; First Edition (US), First Printing edition (November 1, 2007) ISBN 978-1583671573
RichardLevins (June 1, 1930 – January 19, 2016) was a Marxist biologist, a population geneticist, biomathematician, mathematical ecologist, and philosopher...
Richard Charles Levin (born April 7, 1947) is an American economist and academic administrator. From 1993 to 2013, he was the 22nd President of Yale University...
Laland K. N., Feldman M. W. Princeton University Press, 2003 RichardLevins and Richard Lewontin, The Dialectical Biologist, 1985 Lewontin, R. C. (1978)...
which interact at some level. The term metapopulation was coined by RichardLevins in 1969 to describe a model of population dynamics of insect pests in...
Dialectical Biologist is a 1985 book by the ecologist RichardLevins and the biologist Richard Lewontin, in which the authors sketch a dialectical approach...
as journalist Carl Bernstein, feminist writer Kim Chernin, scientist RichardLevins, and author/activist Robert Meeropol (son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg)...
1985), Estonian wrestler Isadore Nabi, satirical pseudonym of RichardLevins and Richard Lewontin, scientists in the 1960s Mohammad Nabi (born 1985), Afghan...
Accessed December 15, 2014. Levins Morales, Aurora (Fall 1995). "Testimonies to Survival: Notes from an Interview with Aurora Levins Morales". STANDARDS (Interview)...
Nabi) was a pseudonym used by a group of scientists including Richard Lewontin, RichardLevins, Robert MacArthur, and Leigh van Valen in the 1960s. Inspired...
Lysenko Affair (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970). RichardLevins and Richard Lewontin, "Lysenkoism", in The Dialectical Biologist (Boston:...
Michel Warschawski (2000), Biology under the Influence by Richard Lewontin and RichardLevins (2007), Walter A. Rodney: A Promise of Revolution by Clairmont...
(United States) Estella Leopold (United States) Simon A. Levin (United States) RichardLevins (United States) Gene Likens (United States) Raymond Lindeman...
Statistics were introduced into the Hutchinson niche by Robert MacArthur and RichardLevins using the 'resource-utilization' niche employing histograms to describe...
the host of syndicated radio show The Mark Levin Show, as well as Life, Liberty & Levin on Fox News. Levin worked in the administration of President Ronald...
Harvard University Press, 1999 Levins, R. "Ten propositions on science and antiscience" in Social Text, 46/47:101–111, 1996. Levins, R. "Touch Red," in Judy...
Biologist". International Socialist Review 24 (July–August). Lewontin, Richard and RichardLevins (2002). "Stephen Jay Gould—what does it mean to be a radical?"...
Developmental psychobiology The Dialectical Biologist - a 1985 book by RichardLevins and Richard Lewontin which describe a related approach. Living systems Oyama...
March 2011. Retrieved 20 November 2010. "HOW CUBA IS GOING ECOLOGICAL - RichardLevins" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2010-07-15. Retrieved 2010-11-21...
in India, Vol. 1: The Formative Years, 1920-1933, ISBN 8187496495. RichardLevins, Talking about Trees: Science, Ecology, and Agriculture in Cuba, ISBN 8187496630...
Israel List of British Jewish scientists Stephen Jay Gould Richard Lewontin RichardLevins Brown, Andrew (15 December 2001). "The Guardian Profile - Steven...
Global Information
Dr. Richard Levins, teaching