All Topics  
George C. Williams

 
George C. Williams

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

George C. Williams
 
 
  Topics George C. Williams Topic Home

Professor George Christopher Williams (b. May 12, 1926) is an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 evolutionary biologist.

Williams is a professor emeritus
Professor

The meaning of the word professor varies. In some English-speaking countries, it refers to a senior academic who holds a departmental chair, especially as head of the Academic department, or a personal chair awarded specifically to that individual....
 of biology
Biology

Biology is a branch of the natural sciences concerned with the study of living organisms and their interaction with each other and their environment ....
 at the State University of New York at Stony Brook
State University of New York at Stony Brook

State University of New York at Stony Brook, commonly known as Stony Brook University, is a public research university located in Stony Brook, New York, New York, United States ....
. He is best known for his vigorous critique of group selection
Group selection

In evolutionary biology, group selection refers to the idea that alleles can become fixed or spread in a population because of the benefits they bestow on groups, regardless of the alleles' effect on the fitness of individuals within that group....
. In his first book, Adaptation and Natural Selection
Adaptation and Natural Selection

Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought is a 1966 book by the United States evolutionary biologist George C....
, he argued that adaptation
Adaptation

Adaptation is the process, which takes place under natural selection, whereby an organism becomes better suited to its habitat. Also, the term may refer to some characteristic which stands out as being especially significant in the organism's survival....
 was an "onerous" concept that should only be invoked when necessary, and, that, when it is necessary, selection
Selection

In the context of evolution, certain traits or alleles of a species may be subject to selection depending on the Pragmatics the user has with the word....
 among genes
Gênes

G?nes is the name of a d?partement in France of the First French Empire in present Italy. It was named after the city Genoa. It was formed in 1805, when Napoleon Bonaparte occupied the Republic of Genoa....
 or individuals would in general be the preferable explanation for it.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'George C. Williams'
Start a new discussion about 'George C. Williams'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Professor George Christopher Williams (b. May 12, 1926) is an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 evolutionary biologist.

Williams is a professor emeritus
Professor

The meaning of the word professor varies. In some English-speaking countries, it refers to a senior academic who holds a departmental chair, especially as head of the Academic department, or a personal chair awarded specifically to that individual....
 of biology
Biology

Biology is a branch of the natural sciences concerned with the study of living organisms and their interaction with each other and their environment ....
 at the State University of New York at Stony Brook
State University of New York at Stony Brook

State University of New York at Stony Brook, commonly known as Stony Brook University, is a public research university located in Stony Brook, New York, New York, United States ....
. He is best known for his vigorous critique of group selection
Group selection

In evolutionary biology, group selection refers to the idea that alleles can become fixed or spread in a population because of the benefits they bestow on groups, regardless of the alleles' effect on the fitness of individuals within that group....
. In his first book, Adaptation and Natural Selection
Adaptation and Natural Selection

Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought is a 1966 book by the United States evolutionary biologist George C....
, he argued that adaptation
Adaptation

Adaptation is the process, which takes place under natural selection, whereby an organism becomes better suited to its habitat. Also, the term may refer to some characteristic which stands out as being especially significant in the organism's survival....
 was an "onerous" concept that should only be invoked when necessary, and, that, when it is necessary, selection
Selection

In the context of evolution, certain traits or alleles of a species may be subject to selection depending on the Pragmatics the user has with the word....
 among genes
Gênes

G?nes is the name of a d?partement in France of the First French Empire in present Italy. It was named after the city Genoa. It was formed in 1805, when Napoleon Bonaparte occupied the Republic of Genoa....
 or individuals would in general be the preferable explanation for it. He elaborated this view in later books and papers, which contributed to the development of a gene-centered view of evolution
Gene-centered view of evolution

The gene-centered view of evolution, gene selection theory or selfish gene theory holds that natural selection acts through differential survival of competing genes, increasing the frequency of those alleles whose Phenotype effects successfully promote their own propagation....
. He is also well known for his work on the evolution of sex
Evolution of sex

Scientists currently have developed several competing hypotheses to explain the evolution of sexual reproduction. Many groups of organisms, notably the majority of animals and plants, sexual reproduction....
, which is also informed by his interest in the unit of selection
Unit of selection

A unit of selection is a biological entity within the hierarchy of biological organisation that is subject to natural selection. For several decades there has been intense debate among evolutionary biologists about the extent to which evolution has been shaped by selective pressures acting at these different levels....
.

Williams received a Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated Ph.D. or PhD for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", is an postgraduate academic degree awarded by University....
 in biology from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1955. At Stony Brook he taught courses in marine
Marine biology

Marine biology is the scientific study of living organisms in the ocean or other Marine or brackish bodies of water.Given that in biology many scientific classification, families and Genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather than on taxon...
 vertebrate
Vertebrate

Vertebrates are members of the subphylum Vertebrata, chordates with Vertebras or Vertebral columns. The grouping sometimes includes the hagfish, which have no vertebrae, but are genetically quite closely related to lampreys, which do have vertebrae....
 zoology
Zoology

Zoology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of animals. The most common pronunciation of "zoology" is ; however, an alternative pronunciation is ....
, and he often uses ichthyological examples in his books.

He won the Crafoord Prize
Crafoord Prize

The annual Crafoord Prize is a science prize established in 1980 by Holger Crafoord, a Swedish industrialist, and his wife Anna-Greta Crafoord....
 for Bioscience jointly with Ernst Mayr and John Maynard Smith in 1999.

He is also an advocate of evolutionary medicine
Evolutionary medicine

Evolutionary medicine or Darwinian medicine is the application of modern evolution to understanding health and disease. It provides a complementary scientific approach to the present Mechanism_ that dominate medical science, and particularly modern medical education....
.

Books

  • Williams, G.C. 1966. Adaptation and Natural Selection
    Adaptation and Natural Selection

    Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought is a 1966 book by the United States evolutionary biologist George C....
     Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
  • Williams, G.C., ed. 1971. Group Selection
    Group Selection (book)

    Group Selection is a 1971 in literature book edited by George C. Williams, containing papers written by biologists arguing against the view of group selection as a major force in evolution....
     Aldine-Atherton, Chicago.
  • Williams, G.C. 1975. Sex and Evolution. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
  • Paradis, J. and G.C. Williams. 1989. T.H. Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics : with New Essays on its Victorian and Sociobiological Context. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
  • Williams, G.C. 1992. Natural Selection: Domains, Levels, and Challenges. Oxford University Press, New York.
  • Nesse, R.M. and G.C. Williams. 1994. Why We Get Sick : the New Science of Darwinian Medicine. Times Books, New York.
  • Williams, G.C. 1996. Plan and Purpose in Nature. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London (published in the U.S. in 1997 as The Pony Fish’s Glow : and Other Clues to Plan and Purpose in Nature. Basic Books, New York).


Selected papers

  • Taylor, P. O. and G. C. Williams. 1984. Demographic parameters at evolutionary equilibrium. Canadian Journal of Zoology 62: 2264-2271.
  • Williams, G. C. 1985. A defense of reductionism in evolutionary biology. Oxford Surveys in Evolutionary Biology 2: 127.
  • Williams, G. C. 1988. Huxley's Evolution and Ethics in sociobiological perspective. Zygon 23: 383-438.
  • Williams, G. C. 1995. In J. Brockman, ed., The Third Culture, New York: Touchstone, pp. 38-50.


External links