Stephen Jay Gould

Stephen Jay Gould (September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was a New York-born American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his generation. Born Jewish, he did not formally practice any organized religion, and though he was raised in a socialist home he did not become an active socialist himself. He spoke out against what he saw as cultural oppression in all its forms, especially alleged pseudoscience in the service of racism.

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September 10 - 1941 - May 20 - 2002 - New York - American - Paleontologist - Evolutionary biologist - Historian of science - Popular science - Jewish - Religion - Socialist - Pseudoscience - Racism

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He served as a member of the faculty at Harvard beginning in 1967, after obtaining his Ph.D. at Columbia. Toward the end of his life he served as the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology at that university. He helped Niles Eldredge develop the theory of punctuated equilibrium in 1972, wherein evolutionary change occurs relatively rapidly in comparatively brief periods of environmental stress, separated by longer periods of evolutionary stability. According to Gould, this overthrew a key tenet of neo-Darwinism; according to most evolutionary biologists, the theory was an important insight but merely modified neo-Darwinism in a way fully compatible with what had been known before.

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Harvard - Ph.D. - Columbia - Zoology - Niles Eldredge - Punctuated equilibrium - 1972 - Environment - Stress - Neo-Darwinism

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