John Maynard Smith
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John Maynard Smith FRS |
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|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
6 January 1920 London, England |
| Died | 19 April 2004 (aged 84) Lewes, East Sussex, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Fields | Evolutionary biologist and geneticist |
| Institutions | University of Sussex |
| Education | Eton College |
| Alma mater |
Trinity College, Cambridge University College London |
| Doctoral advisor | J. B. S. Haldane |
| Doctoral students |
Andrew Pomiankowski Sean Nee Chris Gliddon |
| Known for |
Game theory Evolution of sex Signalling theory |
| Notable awards |
Frink Medal (1990) Balzan Prize (1991) Sewall Wright Award (1995) Linnean Medal (1995) Royal Medal (1997) Copley Medal (1999) Crafoord Prize (1999) Kyoto Prize (2001) Linnean Society of London's Darwin-Wallace Medal – NB: awarded post-mortem (2008) Fellow of the Royal Society (1977) |
John Maynard SmithFRS (6 January 1920 – 19 April 2004) was a British theoretical evolutionary biologist and geneticist. Originally an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War, he took a second degree in genetics under the well-known biologist J. B. S. Haldane. Maynard Smith was instrumental in the application of game theory to evolution and theorised on other problems such as the evolution of sex and signalling theory.
John Maynard Smith was born in London, the son of the surgeon Sidney Maynard Smith, but following his father's death in 1928, the family moved to Exmoor, where he became interested in natural history. Quite unhappy with the lack of formal science education at Eton College, Maynard Smith took it upon himself to develop an interest in Darwinian evolutionary theory and mathematics, after having read the work of old Etonian J. B. S. Haldane, whose books were in the school's library despite the bad reputation Haldane had at Eton for his communism.
On leaving school, Maynard Smith joined the Communist Party of Great Britain and started studying engineering at Trinity College Cambridge. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, he defied his party's line and volunteered for service. He was rejected, however, because of poor eyesight and was told to finish his engineering degree, which he did in 1941. He later quipped that "under the circumstances, my poor eyesight was a selective advantage—it stopped me getting shot". The year of his graduation, he married Sheila Matthew, and they later had two sons and one daughter (Tony, Carol, and Julian). Between 1942 and 1947, he applied his degree to military aircraft design.
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