Geraat Vermeij
Geerat Jacobus Vermeij ( born September 28, 1946 in Sappemeer ) is a Dutch paleontologist, zoologist ( malacologist, marine ecology) and evolutionary biologist.
Vermeij has been blind since the age of three. He studied at Princeton University with a bachelor's degree in 1968 and from Yale University with a master's degree in 1970 and a PhD in Biology and Geology 1971.
In 1971 he became instructor and later professor at the University of Maryland at College Park. From 1977 he was also a Research Associate of the Smithsonian Institution at the National Museum of Natural History. He also worked for many years connected with the Friday Harbor Laboratory of the University of Washington. Since 1989 he is Professor of Geology at the University of California, Davis.
He is interested in marine shallow-water communities ( both recent and fossil ) and to draw conclusions about the evolution from the fossil record of particular mollusks ( clams and snails). Since he is blind, he palpated morphological differences in the fossil and recent shells - hence the title of his autobiography is also privileged hands.
In 1987, he put on his escalation theory that the evolutionary pressure is generated mainly by hunters and food competitors.
He was MacArthur Fellow in 1992. 1975/76 he was a Guggenheim Fellow. In 2006 he received the Paleontological Society Medal and 2000, the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal. In 1997 he was president of the American Society of Naturalists. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
He has been married since 1972 and has one child.
Writings
- Evolution and Escalation: An Ecological History of Life, Princeton University Press, 1987
- A Natural History of Shells, Princeton University Press 1993
- Privileged Hands: a scientific life, Freeman, San Francisco 1997
- Nature: An Economic History, Princeton University Press 2004
- Biogeography and adaptation: patterns of marine life, Harvard University Press 1978