John Maynard Smith | |
|---|---|
 Maynard Smith in 1997 | |
| Born | (1920-01-06)6 January 1920 London, England |
| Died | 19 April 2004(2004-04-19) (aged 84) Lewes,East Sussex, England |
| Education | Trinity College, Cambridge University College London |
| Known for | Game theory Evolution of sex Signalling theory |
| Awards | Mendel Medal (1985) Frink Medal (1990) Balzan Prize (1991) Sewall Wright Award (1995) Linnean Medal (1995) Royal Medal (1997) Weldon Memorial Prize (1998) Copley Medal (1999) Crafoord Prize (1999) Kyoto Prize (2001) Linnean Society of London'sDarwin–Wallace Medal – NB: awarded posthumously (2008) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Evolutionary biologist andgeneticist |
| Institutions | University College London,University of Sussex |
| Doctoral advisor | J. B. S. Haldane |
| Doctoral students | Sean Nee Andrew Pomiankowski |
John Maynard Smith[a]FRS (6 January 1920 – 19 April 2004) was a Britishtheoretical and mathematicalevolutionary biologist andgeneticist.[1] Originally anaeronautical engineer during theSecond World War, he took a second degree in genetics under the biologistJ. B. S. Haldane. Maynard Smith was instrumental in the application ofgame theory to evolution withGeorge R. Price, and theorised on other problems such as theevolution of sex andsignalling theory.
John Maynard Smith was born in London, the son of the surgeonSidney Maynard Smith, but following his father's death in 1928, the family moved toExmoor, where he became interested innatural history. Quite unhappy with the lack of formal science education atEton College, Maynard Smith took it upon himself to develop an interest inDarwinian evolutionary theory and mathematics, after having read the work of old EtonianJ. B. S. Haldane, whose books were in the school's library despite the bad reputation Haldane had at Eton for his communism. He became an atheist at age 14.[2]
On leaving school, Maynard Smith joined theCommunist Party of Great Britain and started studying engineering atTrinity College, Cambridge.[3] When theSecond World War broke out in 1939, he defied his party's line and volunteered for service. He was rejected, however, because of pooreyesight and was told to finish hisengineering degree, which he did in 1941. He later quipped that "under the circumstances, my poor eyesight was a selective advantage—it stopped me getting shot". The year of his graduation, he married Sheila Matthew, and they later had two sons and one daughter (Tony, Carol, andJulian). Between 1942 and 1947, he applied his degree tomilitary aircraft and he worked as an aircraft stressman at factories in Coventry and Reading.[1]
Maynard Smith, having decided that aircraft were "noisy and old-fashioned",[4] then took a change of career, enteringUniversity College London to studyfruit fly genetics under Haldane.[3] After graduating he became a lecturer in zoology at hisalma mater between 1952 and 1965, where he directed theDrosophila lab and conducted research on population genetics. He published a popular Penguin book,The Theory of Evolution, in 1958 (with subsequent editions in 1966, 1975, 1993).
He became gradually less attracted to communism and became a less active member, finally leaving the party in 1956[5] like many other intellectuals, after theSoviet Union brutally suppressed theHungarian Revolution (Haldane had left the party in 1950 after becoming similarly disillusioned). He also admitted that a research program in evolutionary biology explicitly informed by Marxism seemed to bear little fruit.[6]
In 1962 he was one of the founding members of theUniversity of Sussex and was a dean between 1965 and 1985. He subsequently became aprofessor emeritus. Prior to his death the building housing much of life sciences at Sussex was renamed the John Maynard Smith Building in his honour.
In 1973 Maynard Smith formalised a central concept inevolutionary game theory called theevolutionarily stable strategy (ESS),[7] based on a verbal argument byGeorge R. Price. This area of research culminated in his 1982 bookEvolution and the Theory of Games. TheHawk-Dove game is arguably his single most influential game theoretical model.
He was elected aFellow of the Royal Society in 1977. In 1986 he was awarded theDarwin Medal.
Maynard Smith published a book titledThe Evolution of Sex which explored in mathematical terms, the notion of the "two-fold cost of sex". During the late 1980s he also became interested inevolutionary transitions in individuality (ETIs) and worked with the evolutionary biologistEörs Szathmáry.[3] Together they wrote an influential 1995 bookThe Major Transitions in Evolution, a seminal work which continues to contribute to ongoing issues in evolutionary biology.[8][9] A popular science version of the book,The Origins of Life: From the birth of life to the origin of language, was published in 1999.
In 1991 he was awarded theBalzan Prize for genetics and evolution "for his powerful analysis of evolutionary theory and of the role of sexual reproduction as a critical factor in evolution and in the survival of species; for his mathematical models applying the theory of games to evolutionary problems" (motivation of the Balzan General Prize Committee). In 1995 he was awarded theLinnean Medal by theLinnean Society and in 1999 he was awarded theCrafoord Prize jointly withErnst Mayr andGeorge C. Williams. In 2001 he was awarded theKyoto Prize.
In his honour theEuropean Society for Evolutionary Biology has an award for extraordinary young evolutionary biology researchers named TheJohn Maynard Smith Prize.
His final book,Animal Signals, co-authored withDavid Harper, onsignalling theory was published in 2003.[3]
He died on 19 April 2004 sitting in a chair at home, surrounded by books. He was survived by his wife Sheila and their children.
Another evolutionary biologist,William Donald Hamilton, harboured a grievance against Maynard Smith for his handling of an article that Hamilton submitted toThe Journal of Theoretical Biology in 1963, which was eventually published as two papers in July 1964.[10][11] Maynard Smith acted as a reviewer of the paper after two other reviewers had been unable to understand it, and requested that Hamilton revise it into two parts due to concerns about its accessibility, later describing it as "deeply obscure".[11][12] In March 1964, Maynard Smith published the article "Group Selection and Kin selection" inNature, which covered concepts from Hamilton's article.[13] Although Maynard Smith cited an earlier paper by Hamilton published inThe American Naturalist, Hamilton felt Maynard Smith had not given him sufficient credit.[10][11] Hamilton also objected to an anecdote included by Maynard Smith in a review published in theNew Scientist in 1976 which implied Maynard Smith's mentor Haldane had understood the concept of Hamilton's inclusive fitness in the 1950s.[11][12] Hamilton replied to the review suggesting that the anecdote was false, but later apologised to Maynard Smith for having doubted it.[10][11]
The John Maynard Smith Archive is housed at theBritish Library (Add MS 86569-86840). The papers can be accessed through the British Library catalogue.[14]
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