| Jerry Coyne | |
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Jerry Coyne at the University of Chicago, August 2006, with the laboratory cat[1] Dusty.
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| Born | December 30, 1949 |
| Residence | Chicago |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Ecology and Evolution |
| Institutions | University of Chicago |
| Alma mater | College of William & Mary, Harvard University (Ph.D) |
Jerry Allen Coyne (born 30 December 1949[2]) is an American professor of biology, known for his commentary on the intelligent design debate. He is currently a professor at the University of Chicago in the Department of Ecology and Evolution. His concentration is speciation and ecological and evolutionary genetics, particularly as they involve Drosophila.[3]
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Coyne graduated with a B.S. from the College of William & Mary in 1971. He then earned a Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard University, studying under Richard Lewontin, and went on to do a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Davis. In 1989, he was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship.
Coyne has served as Vice President of the Society for the Study of Evolution (1996) and as Associate Editor of Evolution (1985–1988; 1994–2000) and The American Naturalist (1990–1993). He currently teaches evolutionary biology, speciation, genetic analysis, social issues and scientific knowledge, and scientific speaking and writing.
His work is widely published, not only in scientific journals, but also in such mainstream venues as The New York Times, the Times Literary Supplement, and The New Republic. His research interests include population and evolutionary genetics, speciation, ecological and quantitative genetics, chromosome evolution, and sperm competition.
Coyne is a critic of creationism[4] including theistic evolution[5][6] and intelligent design, which he calls "the latest pseudoscientific incarnation of religious creationism, cleverly crafted by a new group of enthusiasts to circumvent recent legal restrictions."[7]
Coyne is an advocate of atheism.[8] He claims that religion and science are incompatible, that only science "broadly defined" (that is, empirical methods based on rational evaluation of evidence) is capable of revealing truth (that is, reliable knowledge about the world and the way it works), and that scientists who hold religious views are only reflective of the idea "that people can hold two conflicting notions in their heads at the same time".[8] He suggests that "the incompatibility of science and faith" is "amply demonstrated" by the fact that, according to Elaine Howard Ecklund, 64% of American scientists are atheists or agnostics.[8]
His website (he dislikes the term "blog") Why Evolution Is True argues extensively for atheism and the incompatibility of science and religion, and also features other science, cats, boots of exotic leather, travel, food and music.
Some of Coyne's peer-reviewed scientific publications include three papers in Nature and three in Science:[9]