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Citation for the David L. Hull Prize
To be Awarded at the 2011 Biennial Meeting of the
International Society for History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology
We historians of science have a tendency,
following the evidence, to blur or even to reject
wonderful stories that have been handed down for
decades or generations. I have found it necessary
to understand the history of science that is so
real to scientists themselves.
Will Provine, "No Free Will," Isis, 1999
At its meeting in 2011, the International Society
for History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of
Biology will award the first David L. Hull Prize.
This prize will be awarded biennially to honor
the life and legacy of David L. Hull (1935-2010).
It is to be awarded to an individual who has made
extraordinary contributions to scholarship and
service in ways that promote interdisciplinary
connections between history, philosophy, social
studies, and biology and that foster the careers
of younger scholars. These are strengths that
reflect the contributions of David Hull to our
professions and to our society.
The inaugural recipient of the David L. Hull
prize is William B. Provine, who is currently the
Andrew H. and James L. Tisch Distinguished
University Professor at Cornell University. It is
entirely fitting that the we honor David Hull by
recognizing Will Provine, whose teaching,
mentoring, research, and engagement have won
admiration and respect among biologists,
historians, philosophers and social scientists
who study biology. His teaching commitments at
the undergraduate level include "Biology and
Society," a formal undergraduate major he helped
to institute that has inspired other similar
programs around the world. His mentoring of
students has been accorded exceptional praise by
many of his former students, some of whom are
well known in the wider world. These qualities
and accomplishments were honored by Cornell
University when they bestowed on him the
prestigious Clark Teaching Award in 1989.
Provine's early work on the history-and
sociology-of population genetics helped to create
the historiography for that discipline,
especially with regard to its contributions to
the "modern synthesis." Provine's approach to the
writing of history through close relationships
with living subjects is especially striking. Once
he abandoned classical Greek science, his formal
area of study, he furthered his own training by
interacting with biological scientists, treating
them both as mentors and as subjects for
analytical study. Studying closely with Richard
Lewontin, then at the University of Chicago,
Provine drew on his strong mathematical
background to sharpen our historical
understanding of the origins of theoretical
population genetics with a doctoral dissertation
that became his 1971 book, The Origins of
Theoretical Population Genetics. Provine's
monumental introduction to the republication of
the 43 papers on the "Genetics of Natural
Populations" written by Theodosius Dobzhansky and
colleagues between 1935 and 1976, (edited jointly
with Lewontin, John Moore, and Bruce Wallace),
examines the Dobzhansky's empirical work in
population genetics and his collaboration with
Sewall Wright. (Five of the first fifteen papers
of that series were co-authored by Wright.)
Provine's introduction remains indispensable
reading for anyone seeking to understand
Dobzhansky's work on Drosophila and the internal
dynamic of the "fly-room" during a critical
formative period of the new field of evolutionary
genetics, but it also highlights the role played
by Wright. Another of Provine's projects
(published in Studies in the History of Biology)
focused on Frances Sumner; introduced scholars
not only to an important biologist, but also to
the importance of the deer mouse, Peromyscus, and
to the combination of laboratory and field
studies that played an integral role in the "new
systematics."
Provine's most celebrated relationship was
perhaps with the late Ernst Mayr, with whom he
sparred publicly as well as behind the scenes
over a number of critical interpretive points
that now undergird our understanding of the
history of evolutionary biology. Their co-edited
collection The Evolutionary Synthesis:
Perspectives on the Unification of Biology,
stemming from a 1974 conference, remains the
entry point for all scholars interested in
exploring the subject, even though it was
published over 30 years ago. But the crowning
achievement of Provine's novel methodology, flair
for personality, and commitment to deep research
and exactitude in scientific explication was his
monumental 1986 book, Sewall Wright and
Evolutionary Biology. This book reset the
standard in the genre known of "scientific
biography." The book has earned high praise from
biologists, historians of biology, and
philosophers of biology. As one example, in a
1989 review, Stephen Jay Gould - no fan of the
"evolutionary synthesis" or the reductionist
tendencies of microevolution - called it "the
finest intellectual biography available for any
twentieth century evolutionist." "In its wealth
of detail and richness of insight," Gould wrote,
"it has established a standard for historical
work in this field."
Provine entered another arena, the exploration of
"biology as ideology," with two foundational
articles that appeared in Science (1973) and
American Zoologist (1986) demonstrating how race
figured prominently in geneticists' and
biologists' thinking in a critical early period
of twentieth century biology,. Both articles are
extensively cited by historians, sociologists,
anthropologists and other scholars of the social
study of the biological sciences to this day.
Other close relationships with scientists
included L. C. Dunn, Motoo Kimura, Tomoko Ohta,
Tom Jukes, Jim Crow and especially Arthur J.
Cain, with whom he published a number of papers.
The trust that developed in these relationships
led to their support of the historical and
philosophical study of biology and led many of
them to leave behind their own papers, libraries
or substantive interviews that have subsequently
enriched the work of other scholars.
Will Provine has an unflagging interest in
getting others to appreciate the substance or the
sciences he studies. He will talk to anyone
about science-in the classroom, at the seminar
table, but also in more unlikely places-for
example in debates in front of sometimes
unfriendly public audiences. He participates in
such interchanges with unflagging respect and
good humor. Thus, his numerous debates with
creationists and anti-evolutionists, beginning
with Philip Johnson in the early 1990s,
established Provine's leading position in this
enduring contest and culminated with his
appearance in Ben Stein's notorious Expelled. But
even before then, Provine's engagement with
dissenting opinions had become a hallmark of his
personal style, which combines an unusual mixture
of respect, curiosity, contrarianism and
tolerance with respect to different views and
perspectives.
Provine's service to the community is therefore
extensive, and far from traditional. Not one for
formal offices or organizations, he has instead
been a facilitator for people and has been
especially encouraging to junior scholars. Early
on he began to undertake oral history interviews
with major figures reluctant to accept such
attention, like Barbara McClintock before she got
the Nobel Prize, sharing the results freely with
other scholars. His famous library of reprint
collections-approximately four-hundred-thousand
in all, garnered from the trusted friendships
with scientists like Ernst Caspari, Norman Giles,
Charles Uhl - and over 15,000 rare books, a
number of which he obtained as a young man while
he was a collector and bookseller of scientific
works. He has shared these collegially with an
international community of scholars with great
ease, following up with helpful conversation,
and, more than occasionally, a gourmet meal. All
this treasured material for intellectual history
has been donated to the Cornell Rare Book and
Manuscript collections along with a bequest from
Provine, to ensure that they continue to enable
scholarly study and draw together scholars from
several distinct communities.
A pioneering body of impeccable scholarship that
has stood the test of time, a generosity of
spirit balanced with a healthy dose of
contrarianism, a tireless advocacy of
interdisciplinarity and of academic freedom, and
a record of public service in defense of
evolution and its teaching, all characterize Will
Provine's life-work and serve as powerful
reminders of the life and legacy of David Hull.
The two were good friends working to enable
interdisciplinary interactions and scholarship
that are the mainstay of ISHPSSB. It is thus
especially fitting that Will Provine is the first
recipient of the David L. Hull Prize.
David L. Hull Prize Committee:
Richard Burian (chair), Garland Allen, Lindley
Darden, Michael Dietrich, Jean Gayon, James
Griesemer, Michel Morange, Maria Jesús
Santesmases, Betty Smocovitis.
Photo credit (see attached): Donald Dewsbury, University of Florida, 1989
*** End of announcement
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