Margulis receives Darwin-Wallace Medal from Linnean Society

Lynn Margulis, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Geosciences, received the Darwin-Wallace Medal from the Linnean Society on Feb. 12 in London.

The medal has been awarded at 50-year intervals since 1858 to mark the anniversary of the reading of the joint Darwin-Wallace paper “On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection.” Medalists are outstanding scientists who have made significant advances in the study of natural history and evolution, according to the society.

This year, 13 scientists were honored with the medal, two posthumously. Previous recipients include Alfred Russel Wallace and Ernst Haeckel in 1908 and J.B.S. Haldane, Ernst Mayer, Julian Huxley and G. Gaylord Simpson in 1958.

Margulis was recognized for her work as an “evolutionist,” detailing the multiple symbiotic origins of nucleated cells from bacterial antecedents (SET or Serial Endosymbiosis Theory).

“She continues to pioneer the recognition of symbiogenesis in the origin of eukaryotic species and more inclusive taxa,” noted the society. “With her students and colleagues in the field and laboratory she investigates microbial symbioses, especially bacteria and protoctists under microoxic conditions.”

Margulis is a co-founder of two international societies, Evolutionary Protistology (ISEP) and Symbiosis (ISS), a member of the U.S. National Academy of Science and a recipient of the National Medal of Science from President Clinton in 1999.

Image: Lynn Margulis celebrates her Darwin-Wallace Medal with Sir Crispin Tickell (left), former United Kingdom ambassador to the United Nations, and former Warden Green College Oxford and Oxford University professor of paleontology Martin Brasier. (Margulis lab photo)

March 10, 2009.

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