Scott Frederick Gilbert (born 1949) is an Americanevolutionary developmental biologist and historian of biology.

Scott Gilbert is the Howard A. Schneiderman Professor of Biology (emeritus) atSwarthmore College and a Finland Distinguished Professor (emeritus) at theUniversity of Helsinki.

He obtained his B.A. in both biology and religion fromWesleyan University (1971). In 1976, he received his MA (history of science, under the aegis ofDonna Haraway) and his PhD (biology, in the laboratory ofBarbara Migeon) from theJohns Hopkins University.^[1] His postdoctoral work at theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison, pursued research on ribosome synthesis in the laboratory ofMasayasu Nomura (1976–1978) and investigated developmental immunology in the laboratory ofRobert Auerbach (1978–1980).^[2]

Gilbert is the author of the textbookDevelopmental Biology (first edition, 1985, and now in its 13th edition, 2023) and has also co-authored (withDavid Epel) the textbookEcological Developmental Biology (2009, 2015). He has been credited with helping initiateevolutionary developmental biology and ecological developmental biology as new biological disciplines.^[3][4][5][6]

Gilbert's early biological research includes documenting the firstpyrimidine-initiated RNA transcripts,^[7] elucidating the mechanisms by which antibodies inactivatepoliovirus,^[8] and studying the roles of paracrine factors in kidney and lung branching.^[9][10] After co-authoring an early paper in evolutionary developmental biology,^[11] he inaugurated a project on the development of turtle shells. With collaboratorJudith Cebra-Thomas, Gilbert elucidated the roles of several paracrine factors involved incarapace formation and made the unexpected conclusion that theplastron was derived fromtrunk neural crest cells. The latter studies led to the hypothesis that the turtle evolved by respecifying its cell types.^[12][13] His most recent studies concern the development of theholobiont and the importance ofplasticity and symbiotic microbes during normal animal development.^[14][15] He has argued that the holobiont is an important unit ofevolutionary selection.^[16]

Gilbert's research in the history and philosophy of biology concerns the interactions ofgenetics andembryology; feminist critiques of biology;Antireductionism; the formation of biological disciplines; andBioethics. Some of these studies have documented the origins of the gene theory from embryological controversies,^[17][18] the formation ofmolecular biology andbiochemistry as separate disciplines,^[19] the importance of feminist critique as a normative control in cell and developmental biology,^[20][21] and the importance of the environment inphenotype production.^[22][23][24] His work in the interactions of biology and religion have included extensive analysis of wonder,^[25] as well as studies of when different groups of biologists claim that individual human life begins.^[26] He has identified (withZiony Zevit) the bone from which Eve was generated,^[27] analyzed embryonic imagery in the art ofGustav Klimt,Diego Rivera, andFrida Kahlo,^[28] and has provided one of the first analyses ofnerd humor.^[29] His biology textbooks have been experiments in the interactions between biology and its social critiques.

Gilbert is frequently invited to lecture on this subject and has given this talk to diverse audiences from around the country to the Vatican. This lecture was recorded at the annual conference sponsored by the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, Planned Parenthood of America, and the Society of Family Planning.^[30] His commitment to sexual and reproductive rights is evident in the article he wrote for San Francisco Chronicle, in which at the end he asks to support Planned Parenthood.^[31]

Scott F. Gilbert is the son of Marvin (Bud) and Elaine Caplan Gilbert. He was raised inEast Rockaway, New York, .^[32] He is married toAnne Raunio (m.1971), and has three children and two grandchildren. In 2015, Gilbert became emeritus professor at both Swarthmore College and the University of Helsinki, and in 2016 he moved with Anne to Portland, Oregon, where he is on the Asian Arts Council of thePortland Art Museum.

• University of Helsinki (Finland, 2000)
• University of Tartu, (Estonia, 2011)

• Phi Beta Kappa (1970)
• Sigma Xi (1980)
• Medal of François I (Collège de France, 1996)
• Fellow, AAAS (1998)
• John Simon Guggenheim Fellow (1999)
• Honorary member, St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists, St. Petersburg, Russia (2001)
• Viktor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Prize (Society for Developmental Biology, 2002)
• Alexander Kowalevsky Medal (2004)
• Biosemiotics Achievement Award (2015)
• Lecture in developmental biology presented to the14th Dalai Lama (2016)^[33]
• Service Award from the Pan-American Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology (2019)^[34]
• Biennial Award from the European Society for Developmental Biology (2024)^[35]

For full publications list, seeSwarthmore College Works.

A select number of his works are freelyavailable online.

• Gilbert, Scott F. (1st ed. 1985; 13th ed. 2023).Developmental Biology. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates.ISBN 0878932461,9780197574591.
• Gilbert, Scott F., ed. (1991).Conceptual History of Modern Embryology. New York, NY:Plenum.ISBN 0306438429.
• Gilbert, Scott F.; Raunio, Anne M., eds. (1997).Embryology: Constructing The Organism. Sunderland, MA:Sinauer Associates.ISBN 0878932372.
• Gilbert, Scott F., Tyler, Anna L., & Zackin, Emily J. (2005).Bioethics and the New Embryology: Springboards for Debate. Sunderland, MA:Sinauer Associates.ISBN 0716773457.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Gilbert, Scott F. &Epel, David (2009).Ecological Developmental Biology: Integrating Epigenetics, Medicine, and Evolution. Sunderland, MA:Sinauer Associates.ISBN 9780878932993.
• Gilbert, Scott F. & Epel, David (2015).Ecological Developmental Biology: The Environmental Regulation of Development, Health, and Evolution. Sunderland, MA:Sinauer Associates.ISBN 9781605353449.
• Gilbert, S. F. and Pinto-Correia, C. (2017).Fear, Wonder, and Science in the New Age of Reproductive Biotechnology.Columbia University Press, NY.ISBN 9780231544580
• Lala, K., Uller, T., Feiner, N., Feldman, M.,  Gilbert, S.F. (2024).Evolution Evolving: The Developmental Origins of Adaptation and Biodiversity.Princeton University Press, Princeton.ISBN 9780691262413

• Interview at the Node atThe Company of Biologists.
• What Science Says About When Life Begins with Robin Young atWBUR-FM Here and Now.
• Evolution and the Human & Social. Sciences: New Perspectives at the Zoological Museum atUniversity of Zurich.
• Holobiont by Birth: Childbirth as Maintenance of Community atAarhus University.

• 1949 births
• American developmental biologists
• Living people
• 21st-century American biologists
• Wesleyan University alumni
• Johns Hopkins University alumni
• Swarthmore College faculty
• Academic staff of the University of Helsinki
• Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
• American textbook writers
• Symbiogenesis researchers

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• Articles with hCards
• CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list