The 2009 Laureates / Basic Sciences / Biological Sciences (Evolution, Behavior, Ecology, Environment)

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Peter Raymond Grant

U.K. / October 26, 1936
Evolutionary Biologist
Professor Emeritus, Princeton University

"Demonstrating Rapid Evolution Caused by Natural Selection in Response to Environmental Changes"
Through the long-term field study more than 35 years on Darwin's finches on the Galápagos Islands, the Grants demonstrated that morphology and behavior of organisms are altered rapidly by natural selection in response to recurrent environmental changes. Their work has not only made enormous contributions to evolutionary biology and ecology, but also has had a profound influence on the general public through demonstrating the evolution by natural selection in the field.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
1936
Born in London, U.K.
1960
B.A. with Honor, University of Cambridge
1964
Ph.D. (Evolutionary Biology), The University of British Columbia
1964-1965
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Yale University
1965-1968
Assistant Professor, McGill University
1968-1973
Associate Professor, McGill University
1973-1977
Professor, McGill University
1977-1985
Professor, University of Michigan
1985-2008
Professor, Princeton University
1989-2008
Class of 1877 Professor of Zoology, Princeton University
2008-present
Class of 1877 Professor of Zoology Emeritus, Princeton University

SELECTED AWARDS AND HONORS
1998
E. O. Wilson Naturalist Award, The American Society of Naturalists
2002
Darwin Medal, The Royal Society of London
2005
Balzan Prize in Population Biology, International Balzan Prize Foundation
2008
The Darwin-Wallace Medal, The Linnean Society of London
Member:
The Royal Society of London, National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Royal Society of Canada

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
1976
Darwin's finches: Population variation and natural selection (Grant, P. R., Grant, B. R., Smith, J. N. M., Abbott, I. J. and Abbott, L. K.). Proceeding National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. 73: 257-261.
1979
Darwin's finches: Population variation and sympatric speciation (Grant, B. R. and Grant, P. R.). Proceeding National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. 76: 2359-2363.
1989
Evolutionary Dynamics of a Natural Population: The Large Cactus Finch of the Galápagos (Grant, B. R. and Grant , P. R.). University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 350 pp.
2002
Unpredictable evolution in a 30-year study of Darwin's finches (Grant, P. R. and Grant, B. R.). Science 296: 707-711.
2006
Evolution of character displacement in Darwin's finches (Grant, P. R. and Grant, B. R.). Science 313: 224-226.
2008
How and Why Species Multiply: The Radiation of Darwin's Finches (Grant, P. R. and Grant, B. R.). Princeton University Press, Princeton, 272 pp.