Ernst Mayr
Early Life
Ernst Mayr was born on July 5, 1904, in Kempten, Germany. He was the second son of Helene Pusinelli and Dr. Otto Mayr. His father was a district prosecutor who came from a family of lawyers. His mother's family was connected to the brewing industry. Mayr grew up in Dresden, where he developed a keen interest in ornithology, the study of birds, after receiving a book about birds from his mother at a young age.
Education
Mayr was educated at the "König-Georg-Gymnasium" in Dresden, where he excelled in science and mathematics. He then went on to study medicine at the University of Greifswald in 1923, but his interest in ornithology led him to switch to studying zoology. He received his PhD in ornithology from the University of Berlin in 1926, under the supervision of Professor Dr. Erwin Stresemann, a leading ornithologist of the time.
Career
Mayr's career began with his work as a curator at the Berlin Museum for Natural History, where he worked on bird collections from the Pacific and New Guinea. In 1931, he moved to the United States to work at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. He was appointed as the curator of the museum's bird collection and held this position until 1953.
During his time at the museum, Mayr led several expeditions to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, where he collected specimens and studied the local bird populations. His work in these regions contributed significantly to the understanding of species diversity and speciation, the process by which new species arise.
In 1953, Mayr left the museum to join the faculty of Harvard University, where he was appointed as the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology. He held this position until his retirement in 1975. During his time at Harvard, Mayr continued his research on the evolution and diversity of species, and also taught courses on evolutionary biology.
Contributions to Science
Mayr is best known for his work on the theory of evolution, particularly his concept of peripatric speciation, a type of speciation that occurs when small populations of organisms become isolated from their parent population and evolve into new species. This work contributed to the development of the modern evolutionary synthesis, a unifying theory that combines genetics with evolution.
Mayr also made significant contributions to the field of systematics, the study of the diversity of life and the relationships among different organisms. He proposed the biological species concept, which defines a species as a group of interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups. This concept has become the standard definition used in biology.
In addition to his work on evolution and systematics, Mayr also wrote extensively on the philosophy of biology, examining the nature of scientific theories and the role of history in biology.
Later Life and Legacy
After his retirement from Harvard in 1975, Mayr continued to write and lecture on evolutionary biology and the philosophy of biology. He received numerous awards for his contributions to science, including the National Medal of Science, the Balzan Prize, and the Crafoord Prize.
Mayr passed away on February 3, 2005, in Bedford, Massachusetts. His work continues to influence the fields of evolutionary biology, systematics, and the philosophy of biology.