Richard Dawkins
English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author (born 1941)
AI overview
Richard Dawkins is an English scientist and author best known for his work in evolutionary biology and for popularizing scientific explanations of how living things evolve. His ideas and books have significantly influenced public understanding of evolution and have sparked widespread debate about the relationship between science, religion, and how we understand life on Earth.
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Person · Open Library
- Born
- 26 March 1941
- Works
- 131
via Open Library + Wikidata
Film & TV
Acting · Nairobi, Kenya Colony
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL (born 26 March 1941), known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008. Dawkins came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which popularised the gene-centered…
Known for
- Science Friction — Self2022
- Great Minds — Self2021
- Intersect — Q42 / Computer2020
- La entrevista de — Self2019
- The Fool — Self (archive footage)2018
- Losing Our Religion — Self2017
- Ex Libris: The New York Public Library — Self2017
- Supersapiens: the Rise of the Mind — Self2017
- The Atheist Delusion — Self (archive footage)2016
Article
Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist, zoologist, science communicator and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford. In 1995, he was named the first Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, a position he held until 2008, and is on the advisory board of the University of Austin. Dawkins has won several academic and writing awards, among them the 2005 Shakespeare Prize and the 2006 Lewis Thomas Prize. Presenting the latter, Paul Nurse said "In eloquent, evocative prose, Richard Dawkins conveys the certainty that, rather than diminishing the myriad beauties of the universe and extinguishing wonderment at its mysteries, science reveals truths that are yet more awe-inspiring than the mysteries they solve."
Dawkins has written a number of popular books explicating evolution. In The Selfish Gene (1976), he espoused the gene-centred view of evolution and coined the word meme. In The Blind Watchmaker (1986), he explains how the cumulative, non-random process of natural selection, coupled with random variation, creates complexity. In Climbing Mount Improbable (1996), he explores how evolution gradually creates complex adaptations through a series of intermediates. The book grew out of his Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, Growing Up in the Universe. With Yan Wong, he co-authored The Ancestor's Tale (2004), a "Chaucerian pilgrimage to the dawn of life".
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1941 births20th-century atheists20th-century British biologists20th-century British male writers20th-century British non-fiction writers21st-century atheists21st-century British biologists21st-century British male writers21st-century British memoirists21st-century British non-fiction writers21st-century British philosophersAlumni of Balliol College, Oxford