Stephen C. Stearns (born December 12, 1946, in Kapaau, Hawaii and raised in Hawi, Hawaii), an American biologist, is the Edward P. Bass Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University. He is known for his work in life history theory and evolutionary medicine.
Education and training
BA Yale University 1967
MSc University of Wisconsin, Madison 1971
PhD University of British Columbia 1975
Miller Fellow University of California, Berkeley 1978
Helped to found the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB) in 1987. He later served on its Council and as its President.
Founded the Journal of Evolutionary Biology, ESEB's main journal, served as its first managing editor from 1986 to 1991, and later served on its Editorial Board. (According to Stearns, the ESEB was founded in part because Birkhäuser would not agree to a new journal unless it was backed by a society.)
With Tim Clutton-Brock, founded the Tropical Biology Association in 1991.
Founded the online open-access journal Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health and created the Foundation for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health. 2011–2012
Awards and honors
1987: Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
1993: European Chair of Biology at the École normale supérieure, Paris.
2000: Clarion Award from the Association for Women in Communications for a book he wrote with his wife, Beverly Peterson Stearns, Watching, from the Edge of Extinction.
2000: Distinguished Ecologist, University of Michigan.
2004: Raymond Pearl Memorial Lecturer, Human Biology Association.
2005: Fellow, Konrad Lorenz Institute.
2005: Fellow, Rockefeller Bellagio Conference and Study Center.
2005: Honorary Member of the Swiss Zoological Society.
2007: Fellow, European Society for Evolutionary Biology.
2011: DeVane Medal for distinction in undergraduate teaching, Yale University Phi Beta Kappa.
2011–2012: Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
2015: Honorary Doctorate, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Zurich.
2000–present: Edward P. Bass Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University
1983–2000: Professor of Zoology, University of Basel.
1978–1983: Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Reed College
1995: Vice president of the Society for the Study of Evolution
1995–1996: Dean, Faculty of Science, University of Basel
1991–1998: President, Tropical Biology Association.
1994–1998: Chair, European Science Foundation Program in Population Biology.
2002–2005: Chair, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University
1986–1991: Managing Editor, Journal of Evolutionary Biology
2012–2016: Editor in Chief, Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health
Books
The Evolution of Sex and its Consequences (Birkhaeuser 1987) ISBN 978-3-0348-6273-8
The Evolution of Life Histories (Oxford University Press 1992) ISBN 978-0-19-857741-6
Evolution in Health and Disease (Oxford University Press 1999, 2nd Ed with Jacob Koella 2007) ISBN 978-0-19-920746-6
Watching, from the Edge of Extinction (first author Beverly Peterson Stearns, Yale University Press 1999) ISBN 978-0-300-07606-6
Evolution, an Introduction (with Rolf Hoekstra, Oxford University Press 2000, 2nd Ed 2005) ISBN 978-0-19-925563-4
Evolutionary Medicine (with Ruslan Medzhitov, Sinauer 2016) ISBN 978-1-60535-260-2
Papers
Stearns, Stephen C. (1976), "Life-history tactics: A review of the ideas", The Quarterly Review of Biology, 51 (1): 3–47, JSTOR 2825234, doi:10.1086/409052 .
Stearns, Stephen C. (1977), "The evolution of life history traits: A critique of the theory and a review of the data" (PDF), Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 8: 145–171, JSTOR 2096724, doi:10.1146/annurev.es.08.110177.001045 .
Stearns, Stephen C.; Koella, Jacob C. (1986), "The evolution of phenotypic plasticity in life-history traits: Predictions of reaction norms for age and size at maturity" (PDF), Evolution, 40 (5): 893–913, doi:10.2307/2408752 .
Stearns, Stephen C. (1989), "The evolutionary significance of phenotypic plasticity", BioScience, 39 (7): 436–445, JSTOR 1311135, doi:10.2307/1311135 .
Stearns, S. C. (1989), "Trade-offs in life-history evolution" (PDF), Functional Ecology, 3 (3): 259–268, JSTOR 2389364, doi:10.2307/2389364 .
