- George C. Williams
Professor George Christopher Williams (b. May 12, 1926) is an American
evolutionary biologist .Williams is a professor emeritus of
biology at theState University of New York at Stony Brook . He is best known for his vigorous critique ofgroup selection . In his first book, "Adaptation and Natural Selection ", he argued thatadaptation was an "onerous" concept that should only be invoked when necessary, and, that, when it is necessary,selection amonggenes 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 agene-centered view of evolution . He is also well known for his work on theevolution of sex , which is also informed by his interest in theunit of selection .Williams received a Ph.D. in biology from the
University of California at Los Angeles in 1955. At Stony Brook he taught courses in marinevertebrate zoology , and he often usesichthyological examples in his books.He won the
Crafoord Prize for Bioscience jointly withErnst Mayr andJohn Maynard Smith in 1999.He is also an advocate of
evolutionary medicine .Books
* Williams, G.C. 1966. "
Adaptation and Natural Selection " Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
* Williams, G.C., ed. 1971. "Group Selection" 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).elected 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. [http://www.edge.org/documents/ThirdCulture/h-Ch.1.html A package of information] In J. Brockman, ed., "The Third Culture", New York: Touchstone, pp. 38-50.External links
* [http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/ee/people/williamsindex.html Official website]
* [http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/ee/upload/williams.pdf article from "Science" by Carl Zimmer]
* [http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/williams_interview.html A Conversation With George C. Williams by Frans Roes]
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