Menno Schilthuizen
Menno Schilthuizen (born 1965, Schiedam) is a Dutch evolutionary biologist, ecologist, and permanent research scientist at Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden and a professor in character evolution and biodiversity at Leiden University, The Netherlands. He has published numerous articles about evolution and ecology and three popular science books. [1][2] In particular, his studies have concerned land snails and beetles. His newest book, on the evolution of genitalia, was published by Penguin in May, 2014. Translations have appeared in Dutch, German, Chinese, Japanese, and Italian. His forthcoming book, Dawrwin Comes to Town, is on evolutionary adaptation in cities and will appear in 2018. Besides his academic positions, Schilthuizen works as an independent science communicator. Recently, he has begun the organisation Taxon Expeditions, which organises field courses for citizen scientists to Borneo and other places, and allows non-biologists to be involved in the discovery and naming of new species.
Education and career
Menno Schilthuizen graduated from and received his PhD at Leiden University. From 1995 to 2000 he worked at Wageningen University. From 2000 to 2006 he worked at the Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, where he studied land snail ecology and evolution in tropical forests, caves, and limestone habitats. In January 2007 he became deputy director of research at Naturalis Museum, Leiden. He stayed at this post for one and a half years, and then became permanent research scientist there. He now heads the character evolution research group, "Endless Forms". From 2007 to 2012, he was honorary professor of insect biodiversity at Groningen University. He now holds a professorship in Character Evolution and Biodiversity at Leiden University.
Books
- Frogs Flies and Dandelions: The Making of Species, 2002. Oxford University Press. 254 pages. ISBN 978-0-19-850392-7
- The Loom of Life: Unravelling Ecosystems, 2008. Springer. 168 pages. ISBN 978-3-540-68051-2
- Nature's Nether Regions: What the Sex Lives of Bugs, Birds, and Beasts Tell Us About Evolution, Biodiversity, and Ourselves. 2014. Viking / Penguin. 256 pages. ISBN 978-0-67-078591-9
- Darwin Comes to Town, 2017. Quercus Books. (in preparation)
The Loom of Life contains a short history of the origin and development of ecology as a science.
Selected articles
- Schilthuizen, M., 2005. 'On the origin of reproductive isolation'. BioEssays, 27: 669-670
- Schilthuizen, M., 2000. 'Dualism and conflicts in understanding speciation'. BioEssays, 22: 1134-1141