Sergey Gavrilets is a Russian-born American physicist turned theoretical biologist, and currently a Distinguished Professor at the
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th sta ...
. He uses mathematical and computational models to study complex biological and social processes. He has made contributions to the study of
speciation
Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species. The biologist Orator F. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution withi ...
,
sexual selection
Sexual selection is a mode of natural selection in which members of one biological sex choose mates of the other sex to mate with (intersexual selection), and compete with members of the same sex for access to members of the opposite sex (in ...
,
fitness landscapes,
sexual conflict
Sexual conflict or sexual antagonism occurs when the two sexes have conflicting optimal fitness strategies concerning reproduction, particularly over the mode and frequency of mating, potentially leading to an evolutionary arms race between m ...
,
social complexity,
evolutionary game theory
Evolutionary game theory (EGT) is the application of game theory to evolving populations in biology. It defines a framework of contests, strategies, and analytics into which Darwinian competition can be modelled. It originated in 1973 with John M ...
,
social norms,
homosexuality
Homosexuality is Romance (love), romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romant ...
,
social norms, and
cultural evolution
Cultural evolution is an evolutionary theory of social change. It follows from the definition of culture as "information capable of affecting individuals' behavior that they acquire from other members of their species through teaching, imitation ...
. He is currently Associate Director for Scientific Activities at the
National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis
The National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis is a research institute focused on the science of mathematics and biology, located on the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, campus. Known by its acronym NIMBioS (pronounced NIM-bu ...
. In 2017, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Gavrilets has contributed to the book ''Evolution: The Extended Synthesis'' (Edited by
Massimo Pigliucci and
Gerd B. Müller, 2010).
"Evolution, the Extended Synthesis"
Retrieved July 1, 2018.
Publications
Books
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References
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
University of Tennessee faculty
21st-century American biologists
Extended evolutionary synthesis
Moscow State University alumni
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