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Definition
An evolutionary biologist who pioneered the application of game theory to understand behavioral evolution across many species.
Introduction
John Maynard Smith (1920–2004) was a theoretical and evolutionary biologist, known as one of the pioneers in applying mathematical models to the understanding of behavioral evolution and diversity across many species. He developed a very early interest in natural history as a young boy and was educated at Eton before taking his first degree (Engineering) at Trinity College Cambridge, and then working on military aircraft design during World War II. He subsequently studied zoology at University College London (UCL), where he trained later as a graduate student of JBS Haldane (1892–1964) working on Drosophila, although he did not take his PhD as he was offered a faculty position in the same department. He left UCL to become the founding Dean of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Sussex, retiring in 1985...
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References
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I am grateful to Professor Brian Charlesworth for comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.
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Watkins, C.D. (2019). John Maynard Smith. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2147-1
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