John Tyler Bonner (May 12, 1920 – February 7, 2019) was an American biologist who was a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. He was a pioneer in the use of cellular

slime molds Slime mold or slime mould is an informal name given to a polyphyly, polyphyletic assemblage of unrelated eukaryotic organisms in the Stramenopiles, Rhizaria, Discoba, Amoebozoa and Holomycota clades. Most are near-microscopic; those in the Myx ...

to understand evolution and development over a career of 40 years and was one of the world's leading experts on cellular slime moulds. Arizona State University says that the establishment and growth of developmental-evolutionary biology owes a great debt to the work of Bonner's studies. His work is highly readable and unusually clearly written and his contributions have made many complicated ideas of biology accessible to a wide audience.

Career

Bonner was the George M. Moffett Professor Emeritus of Biology at Princeton University. He was trained at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

between 1937 and 1947, aside from a stint in the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

from 1942 to 1946. He soon joined the faculty of Princeton University, becoming the chairman of the Princeton Biology Department between 1966 and 1977, also in 1983-84 and 1987–88. He held four honorary doctorates and was a fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

. He was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1969 and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1972. He was made a

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

fellow in 1973. He was a visiting scholar at the

Indian Institute of Science The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a Public university, public, Deemed university, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The ...

in 1993 and the

Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and List of Nobel laureates, Nobel Laureate Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 27 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it ...

in 1990. He has also been visiting faculty at

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...

and

University College, London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. He also was a Sheldon Travelling Fellow in 1941 in Panama and Cuba while in graduate school, a Rockefeller Traveling Fellow 1953 in Paris, France, and held Guggenheim Fellowships in 1958 and from 1971 to 1972 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He held a

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cambridge, England in 1963. He also had

Commonwealth Foundation The Commonwealth Foundation (CF) is an intergovernmental organisation that was established by the list of Commonwealth heads of government, Commonwealth Heads of Government in 1966, a year after its sister organisation, the Commonwealth Secre ...

Book Fund Fellowships in 1971 and between 1984 and in 1985 Edinburgh, Scotland and a Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation Book Fund Fellowship in 1978 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He died in February 2019 at the age of 98.

Works

He wrote several books on developmental biology and evolution, many scientific papers, and produced a number of works in biology. He is best known as one of the world's leading experts on slime moulds and he led the way in making ''

Dictyostelium discoideum ''Dictyostelium discoideum'' is a species of soil-dwelling Amoeboid, amoeba belonging to the phylum Amoebozoa, infraphylum Mycetozoa. Commonly referred to as slime mold, ''D. discoideum'' is a eukaryote that transitions from a collection of unic ...

'' a model organism central to examining some of the major questions in experimental biology. He defined the complexity of an organism as the number of types of cells in it though ''complexity theorists'' disagree, and he argued that both plant and animal taxa which have evolved later, have a greater number of cell types than their predecessors, and sought an explanation acceptable to neo-Darwinism. His works include: * ''The Cellular Slime Molds'' * ''The Evolution of Complexity by Means of Natural Selection''. * ''The Evolution of Culture in Animals'' * ''Life Cycles'' * ''Morphogenesis: an Essay on Development''
''On Development: The Biology of Form''

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

* ''Cells and Societies'' * ''First Signals'' * ''The Ideas of Biology'' * ''Sixty Years of Biology'' * ''Size and Cycle'' * ''Why Size Matters: From Bacteria to Blue Whales''
''Lives of a Biologist: Adventures in a Century of Extraordinary Science''
Harvard University Press. * ''Randomness in Evolution''. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 2013, . His autobiography
''Lives of a Biologist: Adventures in a Century of Extraordinary Science''
was the winner of the 2002 ''ForeWord Magazine'' Book of the Year Award.

Support for evolution

Bonner was involved with one of the earliest American efforts to express scientific support for evolution. The Nobel Prize–winning American biologist Hermann J. Muller circulated a petition in May 1966 entitled: "Is Biological Evolution a Principle of Nature that has been well established by Science?". Bonner signed this manifesto, along with 176 other leading American biologists, including several Nobel Prize winners.''The Day the Scientists Voted'', Bert Thompson, Apologetics Press: Sensible Science, 2001, originally published in Reason & Revelation, 2(3):9-11, March 1982.
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Notes

References

*''Lives of a Biologist: Adventures in a Century of Extraordinary Science'', John Tyler Bonner, Harvard University Press, May 24, 2002, *''

On Growth and Form ''On Growth and Form'' is a book by the Scottish mathematical biology, mathematical biologist D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860–1948). The book is long – 793 pages in the first edition of 1917, 1116 pages in the second edition of 1942. The ...

'',

D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson CB FRS FRSE (2 May 1860 – 21 June 1948) was a Scottish biologist, mathematician and classics scholar. He was a pioneer of mathematical and theoretical biology, travelled on expeditions to the Bering Strait ...

, John Tyler Bonner (editor), Cambridge University Press; Abridged edition, July 31, 1992, *''Why Size Matters: From Bacteria to Blue Whales'', John Tyler Bonner, Princeton University Press, September 13, 2006, *''On Size and Life (Scientific American Library)'', Thomas McMahon, John Tyler Bonner, Scientific American Library, May 1985, *''Sixty Years of Biology'', John Tyler Bonner, Princeton University Press, July 8, 1996, *''Size and Cycle: An Essay on the Structure of Biology'', John Tyler Bonner, Princeton University Press, January 1966, *''The Ideas of Biology'', John Tyler Bonner, Dover Publications; New Ed edition, November 11, 2002, *''The Evolution of Culture in Animals'', John Tyler Bonner, Princeton University Press, May 1, 1983, *''Evolution and Development (Life Sciences Research Report)'', John Tyler Bonner, Springer, February 1982, *''Life Cycles'', John Tyler Bonner, Princeton University Press; New Ed edition, April 3, 1995, *''Cells and Societies'', John Tyler Bonner, Princeton University Press, 1957, * ''The cellular slime molds (Investigations in the biological sciences)'', John Tyler Bonner, Princeton University Press, 1959, *''The Evolution of Complexity by Means of Natural Selection'', John Tyler Bonner, Princeton Univ Press, October 1988, * ''First Signals: The Evolution of Multicellular Development.'', John Tyler Bonner, Princeton University Press, February 15, 2001, * ''The Ideas of Biology. With Drawings by Ann Cox. '', John Tyler Bonner, Methuen (University Paperbacks), 1965, * ''Morphogenesis An Essay on Development'', John Tyler Bonner, #Princeton University Press, 1952, * ''On Development: The Biology of Form (Commonwealth Fund Publications)'', John Tyler Bonner, Harvard University Press, January 1974, * ''The Scale of Nature: A Panoramic View of the Sciences'', John Tyler Bonner (Author), Patricia Collins (Illustrator), Harper & Row, 1969, * ''Researches on cellular slime moulds: Selected papers of J.T. Bonner'', John Tyler Bonner, Indian Academy of Sciences, 1991,

External links