| 1 | Name: | Dr. Jared Mason Diamond | |
| Institution: | University of California, Los Angeles | ||
| Year Elected: | 1988 | ||
| Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 203. Evolution & Ecology, Systematics, Population Genetics, Paleontology, and Physical Anthropology | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1937 | ||
Jared Diamond, professor of geography and physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical School, researches integrative and evolutionary physiology and regulation of nutrient transport, among other interests. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 1961 and spent five years at Harvard University as a junior fellow and associate in biophysics before joining the faculty at UCLA in 1966. Dr. Diamond is known for his outstanding achievements in a number of fields, as a membrane physiologist, population biologist (particularly island ecology) and intrepid explorer (reaching several previously unvisited and almost inaccessible mountain ranges in the interior of New Guinea). His brilliant analysis of the factors controlling species diversity completely revolutionized that branch of population biology, and his delightful essays in Nature dealing with little known aspects of biology document the breadth of his scholarship. His popular science works often combine anthropology, biology, linguistics, genetics and history. Dr. Diamond's book Guns, Germs and Steel (1997) was recognized with the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, and his recent book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2004), examines some of the great civilizations of the past and what contemporary society can learn from their fates. He is also the author of The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? (2012). The recipient of numerous prizes, including the 1998 Japanese Cosmos Award, Dr. Diamond is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. | |||