Eörs Szathmáry


Eörs Szathmáry is a Hungarian theoretical evolutionary biologist at the now-defunct Collegium Budapest Institute for Advanced Study and at the Department of Plant Taxonomy and Ecology of Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. He is the co-author with John Maynard Smith of The Major Transitions in Evolution, a seminal work which continues to contribute to ongoing issues in evolutionary biology. He is a member of the Batthyány Society of Professors.

Main interest

His main interest is theoretical evolutionary biology and focuses on the common principles of the major steps in evolution, such as the origin of life, the emergence of cells, the origin of animal societies, and the appearance of human language. Together with his mentor, John Maynard Smith, he has published two important books which serve as the main references in the field. Both books have been translated into other languages. He serves on the editorial board of several journals.

Awards

Professor Szathmáry was awarded the New Europe Prize in 1996 by a group of institutes for advanced study. He used the prize to establish the NEST foundation, whose task is to help young Hungarian theoretical biologists. The Juhász-Nagy junior fellowship that he endowed in 1996 at Collegium Budapest also serves this purpose. In 1996 he was the Executive Vice-President of ICSEB V that took place in Budapest, partially sponsored by Collegium Budapest. He served as President of the International Organisation for Systematic and Evolutionary Biology. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences acknowledged his outstanding scientific contribution with the Academy Prize in 1999. He was invited to prestigious institutions, including the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and the Collège de France. He is a member of Academia Europaea and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Achievements

Professor Szathmáry's main achievements include:
Apart from the aforementioned co-authored books, he has also published numerous papers in important journals, including Nature, Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, and Journal of Theoretical Biology.