Michael Ghiselin

Michael T. Ghiselin is an American biologist, philosopher/historian of biology currently at the California Academy of Sciences.

B.A., University of Utah (1960); Ph.D., Stanford University (1965); Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University (1964–65); Postdoctoral Fellow, Marine Biological Laboratory (1965–67); Assistant Professor of Zoology, University of California, Berkeley (1967–74); Associate Professor (1974–78); Guggenheim Fellow (1978–79); Research Professor of Biology, University of Utah (1980–83); MacArthur Prize Fellow (1981–86); Senior Research Fellow, California Academy of Sciences (1983- ).

He is famous for his work on sea slugs, and has had both a species (Hypselodoris ghiselini) and the defensive chemical that it containss (ghiselinin) named after him. In 2009 he co-authored a major study on chemical defense: Cimino, Guido and Michael T. Ghiselin Chemical Defense and the Evolution of Opisthobranch Gastropods in the Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences Volume 60, No. 10, pp. 175–422. It can be viewed on line.

Sea slugs are simultaneous hermaphrodites (male and female at the same time). But some other organisms (especially many coral reef fish species), are sequential hermaphrodites (they naturally change sex in the course of their lifetime). In 1969 he proposed the size-advantage model to explain sequential hermaphroditism. In some fish species, he reasoned, males can maximize their reproductive success by breeding with a harem of females rather than breeding only once as a female. In other species, where the fish live in pairs, it is to an individual's advantage to be male when small and to turn into a female when it is larger (see Hermaphroditism for a full explanation of his model).

He also works on the history and philosophy of evolutionary biology. His historical publications have dealt mainly with Darwin and the history of comparative zoology. They include such topics as the influence of alchemy on nineteenth century zoology and the history of the Zoological Station at Naples, Italy.

His main contributions to philosophy have to do with the principles of classification (systematics or taxonomy). He is given much of the credit for establishing that biological species are not kinds of organisms, but individuals in a philosophical sense. A human being is not a Homo sapiens for the same reason that Ontario is not a Canada. An amusing paper on such topics is Ghiselin, M.T. 2007. Is the Pope a Catholic? Biology and Philosophy 22: 283-291.

He has many interdisciplinary interests, among which is forging links between biology and economics. He is Vice President of the International Society for Bioeconomics, and has served as the Co-Editor of the Journal of Bioeconomics since it was established in 1998. The first academic chair of bioeconomics was established at the University of Siena. As a visiting professor he was its first occupant.

As Chair of the Center for the History and Philosophy of Science his main responsibility has been to organize scholarly meetings and to serve as Editor of the volumes based on them. The most recent of these is Darwin and the Galapagos" edited by Michael T. Ghiselin and Alan E. Leviton in the Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences for 2010 Volume 61, Supplement 2. It can be viewed on line.

In addition to volumes that he has edited he is author or co-author of the following books:

Ghiselin, M.T. 1969. The Triumph of the Darwinian Method. University of California Press, Berkeley. Barbour, M.G., R.B. Craig, F.R. Drysdale, and M.T. Ghiselin. 1973. Coastal Ecology: Bodega Head. University of California Press, Berkeley. Ghiselin, M.T. 1974. The Economy of Nature and the Evolution of Sex. University of California Press, Berkeley. Ghiselin, M.T. 1989. Intellectual Compromise: The Bottom Line. Paragon House, New York. Ghiselin, M.T. 1997. Metaphysics and the Origin of Species. State University of New York Press, Albany. Ghiselin, M.T. 2009. Darwin: A Reader's Guide. Occasional Papers of the California Academy of Sciences 155: 1-185.

He also has an audiobook: Ghiselin, M. T. 1993. Darwin and Evolution Carmichael & Carmichael, Inc. and Knowledge Products Blackstone Audio, inc.

External links

• http://research.calacademy.org/izg/staff/mghiselin

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