Richard C. Lewontin

Alexander Agassiz Research Professor, Harvard University

November 19, 2003
International House, Chevron Auditorium — 2299 Piedmont Avenue, UC Berkeley Campus

Add to Google Calendar 11/19/2003 11/19/2003 6:00 PM America/Los_Angeles The Concept of Race – The Confusion of Social and Biological Reality

About the Lecture Evolutionary geneticist Richard Lewontin reviews a number of studies on the genetic differentiation between individuals within local populations, of local populations within classic geographical races and between races. He shows that almost all human genetic variation is … Continued

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About the Lecture

Evolutionary geneticist Richard Lewontin reviews a number of studies on the genetic differentiation between individuals within local populations, of local populations within classic geographical races and between races. He shows that almost all human genetic variation is contained between individuals within any local population and that the consequences of repeated migrations, invasions, and mixture between groups destroys any clear racial boundaries.

About Richard C. Lewontin

A distinguished evolutionary geneticist, Lewontin is credited with introducing the study of molecular population genetics over two decades ago. Aside from his groundbreaking scientific research, he is an incisive critic of public misconceptions on evolutionary biology and the misuse of science. Lewontin continues research into the questions of the inheritance or non-inheritance of human behavioral traits like I.Q. and temperament. He is also widely recognized for authoring papers on questions of evolutionary theory. Most famous are those co-written with J.L.Hubby in 1966 on molecular population genetics. Lewontin is the author of numerous books, including Human Diversity (1982), Not in Our Genes: Biology, Ideology and Human Nature (1984), Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA (1991), and most recently The Triple Helix: Gene, Organism, and Environment  (2000). Born in 1929 in New York, Lewontin earned his A.B. in biology from Harvard in 1951. He received his M.S. in mathematical statistics in 1952, and his Ph.D. in Zoology in 1954, both from Columbia University. After professorships at North Carolina State University, the University of Rochester, and the University of Chicago, Lewontin returned to Harvard in 1973, serving as the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and Professor of Biology until 1998. Since then, he has served as the Alexander Agassiz Research Professor at Harvard. Lewontin’s achievements have been recognized with honors as a Fulbright Fellow (1961), and a National Science Foundation Senior Postdoctoral Fellow (1961 and 1971). In 1994, he received the Sewall Wright Award from the American Society of Naturalists.

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