Insubria and the Community: Honoris Causa Degrees

Niles Eldredge
Honorary Degree in Biology
October 25, 2007

Niles Eldredge (born in 1943) is an American paleontologist. In 1969, after completing his PhD, Eldredge became Curator in the Department of Invertebrates at the American Museum of Natural History, a position which he still holds.

He is also Adjunct Professor at the City University of New York. His specialty is the evolution of mid-Paleozoic Phacopida trilobites: a group of extinct arthropods that lived between 543 and 245 million years ago.

Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould proposed punctuated equilibrium in 1972. Punctuated equilibrium is a refinement to evolutionary theory which describes patterns of descent taking place in "fits and starts" separated by long periods of stability.

Eldredge is a critic of the gene-centric view of evolution and the notion that evolutionary theory can be held accountable to patterns of historical data. His most recent venture is the development of an alternative account to the gene-based notions of evolutionary psychology to explain why human beings behave as they do.

More information: Dr. Eldredge's website