Simon Conway Morris
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Simon Conway Morris FRS is a British paleontologist. He was born in 1951 and brought up in London, England.[1] He made his reputation with a very detailed and careful study of the Burgess Shale fossils, an exploit celebrated in Stephen Jay Gould's Wonderful Life, though Conway Morris' own book on the subject, The Crucible of Creation, is somewhat critical of Gould's presentation and interpretation. Conway Morris is a former student of Harry Blackmore Whittington. He is Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge. He is renowned for his insights into early evolution, and his studies of paleobiology. He gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in 1996. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society aged 39, was awarded the Walcot Medal of the National Academy of Sciences in 1987, and the Lyell Medal of the Geological Society of London in 1998.
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[edit] Biography
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1969-1972 | University of Bristol: First Class Honours in Geology (B.Sc.). |
| 1975 | Elected Fellow (Title A) of St John's College. |
| 1976 | University of Cambridge: Ph.D. |
| 1976 | Research Fellowship at St John's College, University of Cambridge |
| 1979 | Appointed Lecturer in Department of Earth Sciences, Open University. |
| 1983 | Appointed Lecturer in Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge. |
| 1987-1988 | Awarded a One-Year Science Research Fellowship by the Nuffield Foundation |
| 1990 | Elected Fellow of the Royal Society |
| 1991 | Appointed Reader in Evolutionary Palaeobiology |
| 1995 | Elected to an ad hominem Chair in Evolutionary Palaeobiology |
| 1997-2002 | Natural Environment Research Council |
[edit] Work
He is based in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge and is best known for his work on the Cambrian “explosion”, especially in terms of his study of the famous Burgess Shale fossil fauna and similar deposits in China and Greenland. In addition to working in these countries he has undertaken research in Australia, Canada, Mongolia and the United States. His studies on the Burgess Shale-type faunas, as well as the early evolution of skeletons, has encompassed a wide variety of groups, ranging from ctenophores to the earliest vertebrates. His thinking on the significance of the Burgess Shale has evolved, and his current interest in evolutionary convergence and its wider significance - the topic of his forthcoming 2007 Gifford Lectures – was in part spurred by Steven Jay Gould’s arguments for the importance of contingency in the history of life.
His views on the Burgess Shale are reported in numerous technical papers, and more generally in The Crucible of Creation (Oxford University Press, 1998). In recent years he has been investigating the phenomenon of evolutionary convergence, the main thesis of which is put forward in Life’s Solution: Inevitable Humans in an Lonely Universe (Cambridge University Press, 2003). He is now involved on a major project to investigate both the scientific ramifications of convergence and also to establish a web-site (Map of Life) that aims to provide an easily accessible introduction to the thousands of known examples of convergence. This work is funded by the John Templeton Foundation.
He is known as an effective communicator in the public understanding of science, and has done extensive radio and television work. The latter includes the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, delivered in 1996. He is also actively involved in various science and religion debates, including arguments against Intelligent Design on the one hand and Materialism on the other. In 2005 he gave the Second Boyle Lecture.[2] He is an increasingly active participant in discussions relating to science and religion. He is active in the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion and has lectured there on "Evolution and fine-tuning in Biology".[3]. He will give the University of Edinburgh's prestigious Gifford Lectures for 2007 in a series titled "Darwin's Compass: How Evolution Discovers the Song of Creation".
He is a strong critic of materialism and of reductionism:
That satisfactory definitions of life elude us may be one hint that when materialists step forward and declare with a brisk slap of the hands that this is it, we should be deeply skeptical. Whether the “it” be that of Richard Dawkins’ reductionist gene-centred worldpicture, the “universal acid” of Daniel Dennett’s meaningless Darwinism, or David Sloan Wilson’s faith in group selection (not least to explain the role of human religions), we certainly need to acknowledge each provides insights but as total explanations of what we see around us they are, to put it politely, somewhat incomplete.[4]
and of: "the scientist who boomingly – and they always boom – declares that those who believe in the Deity are unavoidably crazy, “cracked” as my dear father would have said, although I should add that I have every reason to believe he was – and now hope is – on the side of the angels."[5]
[edit] Bibliography
Simon Conway Morris has written a number of books on palaeobiology and evolution, including:
- 1998. The Crucible of Creation: The Burgess Shale and the Rise of Animals. Oxford University Press.
- 2003. Life’s Solution: Inevitable humans in a Lonely Universe. Cambridge University Press.
He also contributed to Origination of Organismal Form: Beyond the Gene in Developmental and Evolutionary Biology with an article entitled: The Cambrian "Explosion" of Metazoans.
[edit] External links
- Simon Conway Morris's webpage at the Earth Sciences department
- His 2005 Boyle Lecture, also with bio information
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