born July 5, 1904, Kempten, Ger.
German-born U.S. biologist.
He received his Ph.D. from the University of Berlin and immigrated to the U.S. in 1932. While curator of the American Museum of Natural History (1932–53), he wrote more than 100 papers on avian taxonomy. From 1953 to 1975 he taught at Harvard University. His early studies of speciation and of founder populations made him a leader in the development of the modern synthetic theory of evolution . In 1940 Mayr proposed a definition of species that won wide acceptance and led to the discovery of some previously unknown species. His influential works include Systematics and the Origin of Species (1942) and The Growth of Biology Thought (1982).
Ernst Mayr
By courtesy of the Department of Library Services, The American Museum of Natural History, New York City, neg. no. 334102