Lynn Margulis

About the author

Lynn Margulis (1938–2011) was an American evolutionary biologist who fundamentally reshaped the understanding of how complex life evolved. Born in Chicago, she argued that eukaryotic cells — those with nuclei — arose through symbiotic mergers of bacteria, a theory dismissed by roughly fifteen journals before her landmark 1967 paper finally appeared. Vindicated by genetic evidence and elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1983, she also co-developed the Gaia hypothesis with James Lovelock and remained a lifelong, combative critic of neo-Darwinism.

President Clinton awarded her the National Medal of Science in 1999.