Castanea Mollissima

Stephen C. Stearns (born December 12, 1946, in Kapaau, Hawaii and raised in Hawi, Hawaii)^[1] is an American biologist, and the Edward P. Bass Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Emeritus at Yale University. He is known for his work in life history theory and evolutionary medicine.^[2]

Education and training

• BA Yale University 1967
• MSc University of Wisconsin, Madison 1971
• PhD University of British Columbia 1975
• Miller Fellow University of California, Berkeley 1978

Investment in Infrastructure

• Helped to found the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB) in 1987.^[3] He later served on its council and as its president.
• Founded the Journal of Evolutionary Biology,^[4] ESEB's main journal,^[3] served as its first managing editor from 1986 to 1991, and later served on its Editorial Board.^[3]
• With Tim Clutton-Brock, founded the Tropical Biology Association in 1991.^[5]
• Founded the online open-access journal Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health in 2013.^[6]

Awards and honors

• 1987: Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
• 1993: European Chair of Biology at the École normale supérieure, Paris.
• 2000: Clarion Award from the Association for Women in Communications for a book he wrote with his wife, Beverly Peterson Stearns, Watching, from the Edge of Extinction.
• 2000: Distinguished Ecologist, University of Michigan.
• 2004: Raymond Pearl Memorial Lecturer, Human Biology Association.
• 2005: Fellow, Konrad Lorenz Institute.
• 2005: Fellow, Rockefeller Bellagio Conference and Study Center.
• 2005: Honorary Member of the Swiss Zoological Society.^[7]
• 2007: Fellow, European Society for Evolutionary Biology.^[8]
• 2011: DeVane Medal for distinction in undergraduate teaching, Yale University Phi Beta Kappa.^[9]
• 2011–2012: Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
• 2015: Honorary Doctorate, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Zurich.^[10]
• 2021: Yale College Harwood F. Byrnes/Richard B. Sewall Teaching Prize

Positions

• 1978–1983: Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Reed College
• 1983–2000: Professor of Zoology, University of Basel.^[11]
• 1986–1991: Managing Editor, Journal of Evolutionary Biology
• 1991–1998: President, Tropical Biology Association.
• 1994–1998: Chair, European Science Foundation Program in Population Biology.
• 1995: Vice president of the Society for the Study of Evolution
• 1995–1996: Dean, Faculty of Science, University of Basel
• 2002–2005: Chair, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University
• 2000–present: Edward P. Bass Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University

Selected publications

Books

• The Evolution of Sex and its Consequences (Birkhaeuser 1987) ISBN 978-3-0348-6273-8
• The Evolution of Life Histories (Oxford University Press 1992) ISBN 978-0-19-857741-6
• Evolution in Health and Disease (Oxford University Press 1999, 2nd Ed with Jacob Koella 2007) ISBN 978-0-19-920746-6^[12]
• Watching, from the Edge of Extinction (first author Beverly Peterson Stearns, Yale University Press 1999) ISBN 978-0-300-07606-6^[13][14]
• Evolution, an Introduction (with Rolf Hoekstra, Oxford University Press 2000, 2nd Ed 2005) ISBN 978-0-19-925563-4^[15]
• Evolutionary Medicine (with Ruslan Medzhitov, Sinauer 2016) ISBN 978-1-60535-260-2

Papers

• Stearns, Stephen C. (1976), "Life-history tactics: A review of the ideas", The Quarterly Review of Biology, 51 (1): 3–47, doi:10.1086/409052, JSTOR 2825234, PMID 778893, S2CID 37813334.
• Stearns, Stephen C. (1977), "The evolution of life history traits: A critique of the theory and a review of the data" (PDF), Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 8: 145–171, doi:10.1146/annurev.es.08.110177.001045, JSTOR 2096724.
• Stearns, Stephen C.; Koella, Jacob C. (1986), "The evolution of phenotypic plasticity in life-history traits: Predictions of reaction norms for age and size at maturity" (PDF), Evolution, 40 (5): 893–913, doi:10.2307/2408752, JSTOR 2408752, PMID 28556219.
• Stearns, Stephen C. (1989), "The evolutionary significance of phenotypic plasticity", BioScience, 39 (7): 436–445, doi:10.2307/1311135, JSTOR 1311135.
• Stearns, S. C. (1989), "Trade-offs in life-history evolution" (PDF), Functional Ecology, 3 (3): 259–268, Bibcode:1989FuEco...3..259S, doi:10.2307/2389364, JSTOR 2389364.

References

External links

• Stearns' web site at Yale University
• Stearns' introductory course Principles of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior at Open Yale Courses
• Evolution and Medicine (2015) with Stephen Stearns, YouTube
• Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health at Oxford University Press