Richard Dawkins

About the author

Born in Nairobi in 1941, Richard Dawkins is a British evolutionary biologist, zoologist, and one of the most influential science communicators of his generation. An emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, he served as the first Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science from 1995 to 2008. His 1976 landmark work The Selfish Gene introduced the gene-centred view of evolution and coined the word "meme"; The God Delusion (2006) cemented his reputation as a leading voice of New Atheism alongside Hitchens, Dennett, and Harris.

He has received the Shakespeare and Lewis Thomas prizes.