American evolutionary biologist and mathematician (1929–2021)
Richard Lewontin
Born
Richard Charles Lewontin
(1929-03-29)March 29, 1929
New York City, U.S.
Died
July 4, 2021(2021-07-04) (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 obit was 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.
Richard Charles Lewontin (March 29, 1929 – July 4, 2021) was an American evolutionary biologist, mathematician, geneticist, and social commentator. A leader...
Ideology and Human Nature is a 1984 book by the evolutionary geneticist RichardLewontin, the neurobiologist Steven Rose, and the psychologist Leon Kamin, in...
doctorate in biology from Harvard University under the guidance of RichardLewontin and Dan Hartl, continued at Harvard as a Junior Fellow and a Postdoctoral...
new field quickly became the subject of controversy. Critics, led by RichardLewontin and Stephen Jay Gould, argued that genes played a role in human behavior...
which it is adapted. Advocates for higher levels of selection (such as RichardLewontin, David Sloan Wilson, and Elliott Sober) suggest that there are many...
published until 1939) for Das Kapital. With the evolutionary geneticist RichardLewontin, Levins had written a number of articles on methodology, philosophy...
Gould and RichardLewontin penned a famous critique, "The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm". According to Gould and Lewontin, evolutionary...
Stebbins in botany helped to form the modern synthesis. James Crow, RichardLewontin, Dan Hartl, Marcus Feldman, and Brian Charlesworth trained a generation...
paper", is a paper by evolutionary biologists Stephen Jay Gould and RichardLewontin, originally published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological...
Dialectical Biologist is a 1985 book by the ecologist Richard Levins and the biologist RichardLewontin, in which the authors sketch a dialectical approach...
genomes of species with small effective population sizes. In 2015 she was awarded the Crafoord Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy (with RichardLewontin)....
with other primates, and likely predates all human groups. In 1972, RichardLewontin performed a FST statistical analysis using 17 markers (including blood-group...
negative reviews of the book, by such figures as Philip Morrison, RichardLewontin, Alex Comfort, Jacob Bronowski, and more in-depth analyses by Peter...
Howard was lead designer, architect, and engineer for both companies. RichardLewontin, a new faculty member in population genetics at North Carolina State...
Th. 1981. Dobzhansky's Genetics of Natural Populations I-XLIII. R.C. Lewontin, J.A. Moore, W.B. Provine & B. Wallace, eds. Columbia University Press...
Estonian wrestler Isadore Nabi, satirical pseudonym of Richard Levins and RichardLewontin, scientists in the 1960s Mohammad Nabi (born 1985), Afghan...
Lysenko Affair (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970). Richard Levins and RichardLewontin, "Lysenkoism", in The Dialectical Biologist (Boston: Harvard...
Richard Machalek (born April 12, 1946) is a social theorist, sociobiologist, and professor of sociology. He is emeritus faculty of sociology at the University...
central method used to quantify genetic diversity in a seminal paper by RichardLewontin, "The Apportionment of Human Genetic Diversity". 1951 - F-statistics:...
earned a Ph.D. in biology at Harvard University in 1978, studying under RichardLewontin, and went on to do a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California...
g., organisms in populations or cell lineages in organisms), are RichardLewontin's classic piece The Units of Selection and John Maynard-Smith and Eörs...
Biologist". International Socialist Review 24 (July–August). Lewontin, Richard and Richard Levins (2002). "Stephen Jay Gould—what does it mean to be a...
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