Lynn Margulis lmargulis@nsm.umass.edu A.B., University of Chicago, 1957; M.S., University of Wisconsin, 1960; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1963. Distinguished University Professor Microbial Evolution and Organelle Heredity University of Massachusetts Department of Geosciences Morrill Science Center 611 North Pleasant Street Amherst MA 01003-9297 phone: 413-545-3244 Lynn Margulis is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1983, received from William J. Clinton the Presidential Medal of Science in 1999. The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., announced in 1998 that it will permanently archive her papers. She was a faculty mentor at Boston University for 22 years. Her publications, spanning a wide range of scientific topics, include original contributions to cell biology and microbial evolution. She is best known for her theory of symbiogenesis, which challenges a central tenet of neodarwinism. She argues that inherited variation, significant in evolution, does not come mainly from random mutations. Rather new tissues, organs, and even new species evolve primarily through the long-lasting intimacy of strangers. The fusion of genomes in symbioses followed by natural selection, she suggests, leads to increasingly complex levels of individuality. Dr. Margulis is also acknowledged for her contribution to James E. Lovelocks Gaia concept. Gaia theory posits that the Earths surface interactions among living beings sediment, air, and water have created a vast self-regulating system. | |
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