Lynn Margulis

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Lynn Margulis (born Lynn Petra Alexander; March 5, 1938 – November 22, 2011) was an American evolutionary theorist and biologist, science author, and popularizer, and was the leading modern advocate for evolution's importance of symbiosis.

"Lynn Margulis' name is as synonymous with symbiosis as Charles Darwin's is with evolution," historian Jan Sapp said. Margulis, in particular, transformed and framed current knowledge of cell evolution with nuclei, an event that Ernst Mayr called "probably the most significant and dramatic event in life" by implying that it was a result of symbiotic interactions of bacteria.

Margulis was also the co-developer of the Gaia hypothesis with British chemist James Lovelock, who proposed that the Earth functions as a self-governing system, and was the primary defender and promoter of Robert Whittaker's five kingdom classification system. Margulis' work during her career could provoke intense resistance (one grant application received the reply, "Your study is garbage, don't bother to apply again") and her introduction paper, "On the Origins of Mitosing Cells," appeared in 1967 after being rejected by nearly fifteen journals.

A junior faculty member at Boston University at the time, her argument that cell organelles such as mitochondrial and chloroplasts were once unintended bacteria was largely dismissed for another decade, only after it was bolstered by genetic evidence.

In 1983, Margulis was elected a member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

In 1999, President Bill Clinton awarded the National Medal of Science to her.

In 2008, the Linnean Society of London awarded her the Darwin-Wallace Medal. Margulis, nicknamed "Science's Unruly Mother," a "vindicated heretic" or a scientific "rebel," was a vocal opponent of neo-Darwinism.

Richard Dawkins, George C. Williams, and John Maynard Smith were among the leading neo-Darwinian biologists in a lifetime debate.

Margulis' book on symbiosis and her endosymbiosis had important predecessors, dating back to the mid-19th century, including Andreas Franz Wilhelm Schimper, Konstantin Mereschkowski, Boris Kozo-Polyansky (1890-1957), and Ivan Wallin (1890-1957), but Margulis took the unusual action of personally directing the first English translation of Kozo-Polyansky's The New Principle of Evolution

Dorion Sagan, several of her mother's best works, and those destined for a general audience, were co-authored with her son Dorion Sagan. Margulis was named as one of the top women in science by Discover magazine in 2002.

Personal life

Carl Sagan, a Belgian astronomer, married Margulis in 1957 just after she received her bachelor's degree. Sagan was then a graduate student in physics at the University of Chicago. They married in 1964, just before she finished her PhD. They had two sons, Dorion Sagan, who later became a well-known science writer and her collaborator, and Jeremy Sagan, a Sagan Technology founder and founder. She married Thomas N. Margulis, a crystallographer, in 1967. They had Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, a New York City criminal defense prosecutor, as well as Jennifer Margulis, a teacher and writer. In 1980, the couple divorced. "I quit my job as a wife twice," she said, adding, "It's not humanly possible to be a good wife, a loving mother, and a first-class scientist." No one can do it; something has to go." In the 2000s, she had a friendship with fellow biologist Rigo Guerrero. Joan Alexander married Nobel Laureate Sheldon Glashow, and Sharon, her older sister, married mathematician Daniel Kleitman.

"I remember awakening one day with an epiphanic revelation that I am not a neo-Darwinist," she said, but not a neo-Darwinist. I recalled a previous experience when I discovered that I wasn't a humanist Jew. Though I adore Darwin's contributions and generally agree with most of his theoretical research, I am not a neo-Darwinist." "Natural selection minimizes and perhaps maintains, but it doesn't create," she explained, and that the primary driver of evolutionary change is symbiosis.

Margulis was listed as a member of the National Center for Science Education's Advisory Council in 2013.

Margulis died on November 22, 2011 at home in Amherst, Massachusetts, five days after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered in her favorite research areas, near her house, as her wish.

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Awards and recognitions

• Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1975.
• Guggenheim Fellowship in 1978.
• Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1983.
• Guest Hagey Lecturer, University of Waterloo, 1985
• Miescher-Ishida Prize in 1986.
• 1989, conferred the Commandeur de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques de France.
• Has her papers permanently archived in the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
• 1992, recipient of Chancellor's Medal for Distinguished Faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
• 1995, elected Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science.
• 1997, elected to the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.
• 1998, recipient of the Distinguished Service Award of the American Institute of Biological Sciences.
• 1998, elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
• 1999, recipient of the William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement.
• 1999, recipient of the National Medal of Science, awarded by President William J. Clinton.
• 2001, Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement
• 2002–05, Alexander von Humboldt Prize.
• 2005, elected President of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society.
• Profiled in Visionaries: The 20th Century's 100 Most Important Inspirational Leaders, published in 2007.
• Founded Sciencewriters Books in 2006 with her son Dorion.
• Was one of thirteen recipients in 2008 of the Darwin-Wallace Medal, heretofore bestowed every 50 years, by the Linnean Society of London.
• 2009, speaker at the Biological Evolution Facts and Theories Conference, held at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome aimed at promoting dialogue between evolutionary biology and Christianity.
• 2010, inductee into the Leonardo da Vinci Society of Thinking at the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Arizona.
• 2010, NASA Public Service Award for Astrobiology.
• 2012, Lynn Margulis Symposium: Celebrating a Life in Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, March 23–25, 2012
• 2017, the Journal of Theoretical Biology 434, 1–114 commemorated the 50th anniversary of "The origin of mitosing cells" with a special issue
• Honorary doctorate from 15 universities.