Hamilton, William Donald

▪ 2001

“Bill” 

      British evolutionary biologist (b. Aug. 1, 1936, Cairo, Egypt—d. March 7, 2000, Oxford, Eng.), was one of the most influential evolutionary biologists and a leader of the so-called second Darwinian revolution—the attempt by 20th-century scientists to unify the principles of natural selection with a modern understanding of genetics. Hamilton became a skilled field naturalist at an early age. After completing undergraduate work at the University of Cambridge, he pursued a Ph.D. in genetics, enrolling jointly at University College, London, and the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 1964, while still a graduate student, Hamilton published a series of papers that laid the foundation for the field of sociobiology. In these papers, he explained why many species of animals—in apparent opposition to the struggle for the survival of the fittest—display altruistic behaviour. His theory, known as kin selection, stated that animals make altruistic self-sacrifices, usually for the benefit of relatives, in order to help propagate their own genes and, thus, their behaviour is understandable from a Darwinian perspective. Hamilton later tackled the question of why most species reproduce sexually rather than asexually; his controversial conclusion was that sexual reproduction, by allowing organisms to adapt more rapidly, increased their chances of fending off parasites. From 1964 to 1977 Hamilton was a lecturer at Imperial College, London, and from 1978 to 1984 he was professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Thereafter he served as Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Oxford. Fond of fieldwork, he made many trips to South America and Africa to collect insect specimens. He died of complications from malaria, which he had contracted during an expedition to the Congo Basin.

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