Scott, Eugenie Carol 1945–

PERSONAL: Born October 24, 1945 in LaCrosse, WI; daughter of Allen K. and Virginia Meliss (Derr) Scott; married Robert Abner Black, October 18, 1965 (divorced, 1970); married Thomas Charles Sager, December 30, 1971; children: Carrie Ellen Sager. Education: University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, B.S., 1967, M.S., 1968; University of Missouri, Ph.D., 1974.

ADDRESSES: Office—Director, National Center for Science Education, 420 40th St., Ste. 2, Oakland, CA 94609-2509. E-mail—scott@ncseweb.org.

CAREER: University of Kentucky, Lexington, assistant professor of anthropology, 1974–82; University of California—San Francisco, postdoctoral fellow, 1983–84; University of Colorado, Boulder, assistant professor of anthropology, 1984–86; National Center for Science Education, Oakland, CA, executive director and publisher, NCSE Reports (newsletter), 1987–. Member of national advisory boards, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Washington, 1995, American Civil Liberties Union, 1995–, American Association for the Advancement of Science Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion, 2000–2006. Member, board of directors, Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, Colorado Springs, CO, 1993–99; publisher, Bookwatch Reviews, 1988–92. Producer of videotape series "How Scientists Know About … "; featured guest as scientific authority on creationism and/or pseudoscience.

MEMBER: Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (fellow), California Academy of Sciences, American Association of Physical Anthropology, (president, 2001–03).

AWARDS, HONORS: Science and Education award, Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, 1991; Distinguished Alumnus award, University of Missouri, 1993; Isaac Asimov Science Award, American Humanist Association, 1998; James Randi Skeptic of the Year award, Skeptic Society, 1999; Bruce Alberts Award, American Society of Cell Biology, 1999; 1st Amendment Award, Playboy Foundation, 1999; also received National Science Board Public Service Award, Geological Society of America Public Service Award, California Science Teacher Margaret Nicholson Distinguished Service award, Center for Inquiry Defense of Science Award. McGill University, D.Sc, honoris causa, 2003; Ohio State University, D.Sc, honoris causa, 2006; Mt. Holyoke, D.Sc, honoris causa, 2006.

WRITINGS:

Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction, foreword by Niles Eldredge, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 2004.

Also author and editor, Biology Textbooks: The New Generation, 1990; coauthor, Teaching about Evolution and the Nature of Science, 1998.

SIDELIGHTS: As the executive director of the National Center for Science Education, Eugenie Carol Scott defends the teaching of science in public schools. Her latest book, Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction, has won praise from reviewers for its calm approach to rebutting creationist claims that evolution is false and that scientific evidence supports the idea that the universe was specially created in its present form by a divine being. "Her book is both a straightforward history of the debate," wrote Judith Shulevitz in the New York Times Online, "and an anthology of essays written by partisans on each side." Scott also won praise for her workmanlike approach to the highly contentious debate. A reviewer for Book-watch called the work "methodical, adhering to the highest standards of academic research, and superbly organized."

Evolution vs. Creationism's "main virtue," wrote Shulevitz, "is to explain the scientific method, which many invoke but few describe vividly." In fact, Scott explains, the scientific method is what sets scientists apart from creationists; it is, in Shulevitz's words, "a way of finding out about the natural world." "Scott also manages to lay out the astronomical, chemical, geological and biological bases of evolutionary theory," Shulevitz concluded, "in unusually plain English," and takes the reader through the history of the clash between creationism and evolutionism in American courtrooms, from the Scopes monkey trial of the 1920s to the present day.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

BioScience, July, 2002, Donna Royston, "Eugenie Scott awarded the 2002 National Science Board Public Service Award," p. 629.

Bookwatch, September, 2004, review of Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction, p. 8.

ONLINE

National Center for Science Education Web site, http://www.ncseweb.org/ (April 26, 2006), biography of Scott.

Midwest Book Review Online, http://www.midwestbookreview.com/ (April 26, 2006), review of Evolution vs. Creationism.

New York Times Online, http://www.nytimes.com/ (January 22, 2006), Judith Shulevitz, "When Cosmologies Collide."