BIOLOGIST

Lynn Margulis

1938 - 2011

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Lynn Margulis (born Lynn Petra Alexander; March 5, 1938 – November 22, 2011) was an American evolutionary biologist, who was the primary modern proponent for the significance of symbiosis in evolution. In particular, Margulis transformed and fundamentally framed biologists' understanding of the evolution of the Eukaryotes, organisms with nuclei in their cells. She proposed that they came into being by symbiotic mergers of bacteria. Margulis was the co-developer of the Gaia hypothesis with the British chemist James Lovelock, proposing that the Earth functions as a unified self-regulating system, and the principal defender and promulgator of the five kingdom classification of Robert Whittaker. Read more on Wikipedia

Her biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Lynn Margulis is the 135th most popular biologist (down from 99th in 2019), the 1,188th most popular biography from United States (down from 970th in 2019) and the 22nd most popular American Biologist.

Lynn Margulis is most famous for her work in helping to develop the theory of symbiogenesis, which states that the organelles in cells are actually the descendants of bacteria that were engulfed by a cell and became symbiotic with it.

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Among BIOLOGISTS

Among biologists, Lynn Margulis ranks 135 out of 1,097Before her are Sam Harris, Reginald Innes Pocock, Sydney Brenner, John Franklin Enders, Jan Swammerdam, and William Jackson Hooker. After her are Gaspard Bauhin, Johann Friedrich Gmelin, Oliver Smithies, Martin Evans, Gerald Edelman, and Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1938, Lynn Margulis ranks 57Before her are Otto Rehhagel, Viktor Chernomyrdin, Princess Désirée, Baroness Silfverschiöld, Kenny Rogers, Robert Nozick, and Derek Jacobi. After her are Jiří Menzel, Anthony James Leggett, Issey Miyake, Jean Giraud, Tufuga Efi, and David Irving. Among people deceased in 2011, Lynn Margulis ranks 43Before her are Jane Russell, Leka, Crown Prince of Albania, Willard Boyle, Baruj Benacerraf, John Barry, and Amy Winehouse. After her are Zdeněk Miler, C. Odumegwu Ojukwu, Dev Anand, Betty Ford, Tom Gehrels, and Ernesto Sabato.

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Lynn Margulis ranks 1,188 out of 20,380Before her are Ginger Rogers (1911), John Brown (1800), Tony Bennett (1926), Paul Allen (1953), Tina Fey (1970), and James Tobin (1918). After her are Vivian Maier (1926), Herbie Hancock (1940), Jayne Mansfield (1933), Daniel Goleman (1946), Richard Dreyfuss (1947), and Dennis Quaid (1954).

Among BIOLOGISTS In United States

Among biologists born in United States, Lynn Margulis ranks 22Before her are Sylvia Earle (1935), John Hopfield (1933), Robert Whittaker (1920), Hamilton O. Smith (1931), Sam Harris (1967), and John Franklin Enders (1897). After her are Gerald Edelman (1929), Edward B. Lewis (1918), Daniel Nathans (1928), E. O. Wilson (1929), Howard Martin Temin (1934), and Joshua Lederberg (1925).