Marc Kirschner

Marc Kirschner is an American biologist.

Professional career

Kirschner graduated in 1966 from Northwestern University in 1971 and achieved his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. He was an Assistant Professor at Princeton University in 1972. In 1993 he moved to Harvard Medical School.

The theory of facilitated variation ( engl: Theory of Facilitated Variation) is an explanatory model that is designed to complement the theory of evolution, which focuses on the nature of variation in evolution. This theory was founded in 2005 by Marc Kirschner, founder and chairman of the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School, and John Gerhart, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in her book "The Plausibility of Life" published ( German title: Die solution of Darwin's dilemma ).

1988 held Kirschner Keith R. Porter Lecture. In 1991, he received the Richard Lounsbery Award, the Gairdner Foundation International Award, 2001 and 2003, the Dickson Prize in Science and the EB Wilson Medal.

Writings

• Cells, Embryos, and Evolution: Toward a Cellular and Developmental Understanding of Phenotypic Variation and Evolutionary Adaptability, (jointly with John Gerhart ), Blackwell's, 1997, ISBN 0-86542-574-4
• The Plausibility of Life: Resolving Darwin 's Dilemma, 2005 (jointly with John Gerhart ), Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-10865-6