Lynn Margulis
| Lynn Margulis | |
|---|---|
Margulis in 2005
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| Born | Lynn Petra Alexander March 5, 1938 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | November 22, 2011 (aged 73) Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Biology |
| Institutions |
Brandeis University Boston University University of Massachusetts Amherst |
| Alma mater |
University of Chicago University of Wisconsin-Madison UC Berkeley |
| Thesis | An Unusual Pattern of Thymidine Incorporation in Euglena' (1965) |
| Doctoral advisor | Max Alfert |
| Known for |
Symbiogenesis Gaia hypothesis |
| Notable awards |
National Medal of Science (1999) William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement (1999) Darwin-Wallace Medal (2008) |
| Spouse |
Carl Sagan (m. 1957–65, divorced) Thomas Margulis (m. 1967–80, divorced) |
| Children |
Dorion Sagan (1959) Jeremy Ethan Sagan (1960) Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma Jennifer Margulis di Properzio |
Lynn Margulis (born Lynn Petra Alexander; March 5, 1938 – November 22, 2011) was an American evolutionary theorist, science author, educator, and popularizer, and was the primary modern proponent for the significance of symbiosis in evolution. Historian Jan Sapp has said that "Lynn Margulis's name is as synonymous with symbiosis as Charles Darwin's is with evolution." In particular, Margulis transformed and fundamentally framed current understanding of the evolution of cells with nuclei – an event Ernst Mayr called "perhaps the most important and dramatic event in the history of life" – by proposing it to have been the result of symbiotic mergers of bacteria. Margulis was also the co-developer of the Gaia hypothesis with the British chemist James Lovelock, proposing that the Earth functions as a single self-regulating system, and was the principal defender and promulgator of the five kingdom classification of Robert Whittaker.
Throughout her career, Margulis' work could arouse intense objection (one grant application elicited the response, "Your research is crap, do not bother to apply again"), and her formative paper, "On the Origin of Mitosing Cells," appeared in 1967 after being rejected by about fifteen journals. Still a junior faculty at Boston University at the time, her theory that cell organelles such as and chloroplasts were once independent bacteria was largely ignored for another decade, becoming widely accepted only after it was powerfully substantiated through genetic evidence. Margulis was elected a member of the US National Academy of Sciences in 1983. President Bill Clinton presented her the National Medal of Science in 1999. The Linnean Society of London awarded her the Darwin-Wallace Medal in 2008.
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