Brian Goodwin

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Brian Goodwin (right).

Brian Carey Goodwin (born March 25, 1931 in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue , Québec , † July 15, 2009 in Torbay ) was a Canadian mathematician and biologist .

He studied biology at McGill University and then emigrated to Great Britain , where he studied mathematics at Oxford and received his PhD in biology and mathematics in Edinburgh . He researched and taught at MIT and Sussex University . At the Open University he worked as a professor of biology until he retired in 1992. Goodwin is a founding member of the Santa Fe Institute and most recently taught holistic science at Schumacher College in Dartington, Devon .

Goodwin has done research in Theoretical Biology , which uses mathematical and physical methods to understand biological processes. Goodwin's specialties were morphogenesis and evolution . He has developed a critical assessment of the role of natural selection . He advocated explaining biology from the perspective of complex systems and for combining natural and human sciences .

Publications

  • Signs of Life: How Complexity Pervades Biology , with Ricard V. Sole, Basic Books, 2001, ISBN 0465019277
  • How the Leopard Changed its Spots: The Evolution of Complexity , Scribner, 1994, ISBN 0025447106
    (German: The Leopard who loses his spots , Piper, Munich 1997, ISBN 3492038735 )
  • Form and Transformation: Generative and Relational Principles in Biology , Cambridge Univ. Press, 1996.
  • Mechanical Engineering of the Cytoskeleton in Developmental Biology (International Review of Cytology) , with Kwang W. Jeon and Richard J. Gordon, Academic Press, London 1994, ISBN 0123645530
  • Theoretical Biology: Epigenetic and Evolutionary Order for Complex Systems with Peter Saunders, Edinburgh University Press, 1989, ISBN 0852246005

literature

  • Roger Lewin, The Complexity Theory , Hoffmann & Campe, Hamburg 1993

Web links

Commons : Brian Goodwin  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files