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Ernst Walter Mayr was a German-American evolutionary biologist. He was also a renowned taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, philosopher of biology, and historian of science. His work contributed to the conceptual revolution that led to the modern evolutionary synthesis of Mendelian genetics, systematics, and Darwinian evolution, and to the development of the biological species concept.
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culture · German-American evolutionary biologist (1904–2005) · curator · ornithologist · philosopher · writer · university teacher · evolutionary biologist · museologist · botanical collector · scientific collector · zoologist · also Ernst Mayr, Ernst Walter Mayr, E. Mayr, E. W. Mayr, Mayr
Born 5 July 1904 · Died 3 February 2005 · Q5354
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“In those early years in New York when I was a stranger in a big city, it was the companionship and later friendship which I was offered in the Linnean Society that was the most important thing in my life.”
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“It was as if someone had given me the key to heaven.”
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National Academies of Sciences%2c Engineering%2c and Medicine: Systematics and the Origin of Species: On Ernst Mayr's 100th Anniversary
Discover Magazine: Ernst Mayr and the elevator
EurekAlert!: Ernst Mayr's theory illustrated in genetic epidemiology studies
MIT Technology Review: Ernst Mayr on Aliens
World Socialist Web Site: An appreciation of biologist Ernst Mayr (1904-2005)
The Chronicle of Higher Education: Ernst Mayr, Pioneer in Evolutionary Biology, Dies at 100
Died 2005-02-03.
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“Life is simply the reification of the process of living.”
Won Treviranus Medal (2003).
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Mayr received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement
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Awarded Loye and Alden Miller Research Award (2000).
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Awarded Crafoord Prize in Biosciences (1999).
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Awarded honorary doctor of the French National Museum of Natural History (1996).
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Won Godman-Salvin Medal (1995).
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Criticized the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), as conducted by fellow Harvard professor Paul Horowitz, as being a waste of university and student resources for its inability to address and answer a s
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Harvard University renamed the Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology the Ernst Mayr Library, in his honor
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Received the Benjamin Franklin Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Sciences of the American Philosophical Society, of which he was already a member
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Awarded International Prize for Biology (1994).
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Awarded Foreign Member of the Royal Society (1988).
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Won George Sarton Medal (1986).
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Won Darwin Medal (1984).
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Awarded Balzan Prize (1983).
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Won Eisenmann Medal (1983).
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Won Gregor Mendel Medal (1980).
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Awarded Elliott Coues Award (1977).
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Won Linnean Medal (1977).
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Awarded doctor honoris causa from the Pierre and Marie Curie University (1975).
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As emeritus professor of zoology, showered with honors
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Won National Medal of Science (1969).
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Won Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal (1967).
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Won Brewster Medal (1965).
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Published “Animal Species and Evolution” — cited 5,082 times.
Won Darwin–Wallace Medal (1958).
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And the Linnaean Society of New York's inaugural Eisenmann Medal in 1983
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"Karl Jordan's contribution to current concepts in systematics and evolution"
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Where he also served as director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology from 1961 to 1970
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Awarded Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi (1950).
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Awarded Leidy Award (1946).
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Mayr published Systematics and the Origin of Species, his first book and a seminal work in the Synthesis
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Mayr played a central role in the species problem debate over what was the best species concept
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Mayr and Dobzhansky became close friends, with their consonant personalities enabling efficient exchange of ideas that enhanced both individuals' thinking
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Was elected a Corresponding Member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union
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With Theodosius Dobzhansky presenting findings that would shortly afterwards form the nucleus of his magnum opus, Genetics and the Origin of Species
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Trying to get foreign literature reviewed in the Condor: "Too many American ornithologists have despised the study of the living bird; the magazines and books that deal with the subject abound in careless statements, ant
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To take up a curatorial position at the American Museum of Natural History, where he produced numerous publications on bird taxonomy, naming 26 new species and 445 new subspecies of birds
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Mayr was introduced by Stresemann to banker and naturalist Walter Rothschild, who asked him to undertake an expedition to New Guinea on behalf of himself and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York
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Stresemann suggested that he give up his medical studies, in fact he should leave the faculty of medicine and enrol into the faculty of Biology and then join the Berlin Museum with the prospect of bird-collecting trips t
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And, according to Mayr himself, "took the medical curriculum (to satisfy a family tradition) but after only a year, he decided to leave medicine and enrolled at the Faculty of Biological Sciences
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Born 1904-07-05.
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