Ernst Walter Mayr was born in Germany to Otto and Helen Mayr on July 5, 1904. In 1923, Mayr saw two Red-Crested Pochards (diving ducks); this was the first sighting in central Germany since 1846. After his sighting, Mayr began working in the bird collection of the Berlin Museum. After graduating from the University of Berlin, Mayr went on a few scientific expeditions to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. While on his expeditions, Mayr studied various birds in the regions and upon his return he became famous for his neo-darwinian views on evolution. Mayr is known for his work in avian taxonomy, evolution and population genetics.
Mayr did fieldwork in ornithology (the scientific study of birds) in the Pacific, leading three scientific expeditions to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands from 1928 to 1930. Mayr’s scientific career included many publications such as The Evolutionary Species, Populations, Species and Evolution, This is Biology and Evolution and the Diversity of Life.
Mayr has received all three of the awards that make up the triple crown in biology. He won the Blazan Prize in 1983 and the International Prize for Biology for his work in systematics. At the age of 94, Ernst Mayr won the Crafoord Prize, won jointly with John Maynard Smith of the University of Sussex and George C. Williams of the State University of New York. These three men won this prestigious award for their roles and contributions in broadening and refining the understanding of evolution and its phenomenon.
Mayr’s work has contributed to the synthesis of Mendelian genetics and Darwinian evolution, and to the development of the biological species concept. Mayr has been universally recognized and acknowledged as the leading evolutionary biologist of the twentieth century.
References:
http://www.biography.com/cgi-bin/biomain.cgi
http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/1/0,5716,52901+1+51619,00.html?query=ersnt%20mayr
http://www.freedomsnest.com/mayr.html
http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~rsauzier/Mayr.html
Written By Sheila Bengtson
Edited by Marcy L. Voelker, 2007