Simon A. Levin

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Simon Asher Levin (born April 22, 1941) is an American ecologist. He is a Moffett Professor of Biology in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Princeton University. He specializes in using mathematical modeling and empirical studies in the understanding of macroscopic patterns of ecosystems and biological diversities.

[edit] Background

Simon A. Levin is Moffett Professor of Biology at Princeton and the Director of the university’s Center for BioComplexity. His principal research interests are in understanding how macroscopic patterns and processes are maintained at the level of ecosystems and the biosphere, in terms of ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that operate primarily at the level of organisms, and in the interface between ecology and economics. Much of his work concerns the evolution of diversification, the mechanisms sustaining biological diversity in natural systems, and the implications for ecosystem structure and functioning. He has done much work on the modeling of epidemiological dynamics, including antibiotic resistance. Levin was the former Chair of the Board of the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, President of the Ecological Society of America, and President of the Society for Mathematical Biology. He currently is Chair of the Council of IIASA, Co-Chair of the Science Board of the Santa Fe Institute, and Vice-Chair of the Committee of Concerned Scientists. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, as well as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Levin received the MacArthur Award from the Ecological Society of America and its Distinguished Service Award, the Okubo Prize from the Society for Mathematical Biology and the Japanese Society for Theoretical Biology, a Whittier College Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters (2004), the 2004 Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the 2005 Kyoto Prize for Basic Sciences, 2007 Beijer Fellow, and the 2007 American Biological Sciences Distinguished Scientist Award.