Thomson, Keith Stewart 1938–

(Keith Thomson, Keith S. Thomson)

PERSONAL:

Born July 29, 1938, in Heanor, England; immigrated to United States, 1960; naturalized citizen, 1994; son of Ronald William (a Baptist minister and administrator) and Marian Adelaide (a homemaker) Thomson; married Linda Gailbreath Price (an artist), September 27, 1963; children: Jessica Adelaide, Elizabeth Rose. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: University of Birmingham, B.Sc., 1960; Harvard University, A.M., 1961, Ph.D., 1963; Oxford University, M.A., 1988. Hobbies and other interests: Gardening, walking, bird watching, piano.

ADDRESSES:

Home and office—Philadelphia, PA. Agent—Felicity Bryan, Felicity Bryan Associates, 2A N. Parade, Oxford OX2 6LX, England; George Lucas, Inkwell Management, 531 5th Ave., New York, NY 10175. E-mail—keith.thomson@oum.ox.ac.uk.

CAREER:

University College, London, England, temporary lecturer in zoology, 1963-65; Yale University, New Haven, CT, assistant professor, 1965-70, associate professor, 1970-76, professor of biology, 1976-87, assistant curator of zoology, 1965-70, associate curator of vertebrate zoology, 1970-76, curator of vertebrate zoology, 1976-87, director of Peabody Museum of Natural History, 1977-79, dean of Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 1979-86; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, president, 1987-95; New School for Social Research, New York, NY, distinguished scientist-in-residence, 1996-98; University of Oxford, Oxford, England, professor of natural history and director of Museum of Natural History, 1998-2003, professor emeritus, 2003—; fellow of Kellogg College, 1998-2003, emeritus fellow, 2003—; American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, senior research fellow, 2003—. Director of Sears Foundation for Marine Research and Oceanographic History, 1977-88; board member and trustee of Wetlands Institute, 1975-93, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, 1981—, Wistar Institution, 1987-95, Central Philadelphia Development Corporation, 1987-95, and Charles Darwin Trust, 1998—.

MEMBER:

History of Science Society, Linnean Society (fellow), Society for Nautical Research, Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology, Zoological Society of London (fellow), Sigma Xi.

AWARDS, HONORS:

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) science fellow, 1963-65; Australian National University honorary research fellow, 1967; honorary A.M., Yale University, 1976; Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal, Yale University, 1986; Golden Trilobite Award, Paleontology Society of America, 1995; International Centre for Jefferson Studies visiting fellow, 2007.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) I.I. Schmalhausen, The Origin of Terrestrial Vertebrates (original Russian edition published as Proiskhozhdenie nazemnykh pozvonochnykh), translation by Leon Kelso, preface by Carl Gans, Academic Press (New York, NY), 1968.

(With W.H. Weed III and Algis G. Taruski) Saltwater Fishes of Connecticut, State Geological and Natural History Survey of Connecticut (Hartford, CT), 1971, 2nd edition, State Geological and Natural History Survey of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection (Hartford, CT), 1978.

(With K.S.W. Campbell) The Structure and Relationships of the Primitive Devonian Lungfish—Dipnorhynchus sussmilchi (Etheridge), Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University (New Haven, CT), 1971.

On the Biology of Cosmine, Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University (New Haven, CT), 1975.

Morphogenesis and Evolution, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1988.

(Under name Keith S. Thomson) Living Fossil: The Story of the Coelacanth, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1991.

The Common but Less Frequent Loon and Other Essays, illustrations by wife, Linda Price Thomson, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1993.

(Under name Keith S. Thomson) HMS Beagle: The Story of Darwin's Ship, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1995, published as HMS Beagle: The Ship That Changed the Course of History, Phoenix (London, England), 2003.

(Under name Keith S. Thomson) Treasures on Earth: Museums, Collections and Paradoxes, Faber & Faber (London, England), 2002.

(Under name Keith Thomson) Before Darwin: Reconciling God and Nature, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2005, published as The Watch on the Heath: Science and Religion before Darwin, HarperCollins (London, England), 2005.

(Under name Keith Thomson) Fossils: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2005.

(Under name Keith Thomson) The Legacy of the Mastodon: The Golden Age of Fossils in America, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2008.

Author of column "Marginalia," American Scientist, 1983—. Also contributor to periodicals, including American Journal of Science, American Zoologist, BioEssays, Biography, Nature, Oceanus, Science, and Yale Review. Member of editorial boards, Paleobiology, 1988, and Journal of Morphology, 1988. Author's works have been translated into German, Italian, and Japanese.

SIDELIGHTS:

Keith Stewart Thomson has served as a professor of biology, a curator of zoology, a research scientist, and an administrator, and he brings a wealth of experience to both his scientific and popular writings. His 1988 book Morphogenesis and Evolution is an example of his scholarly work in which he strives toward a synthesis of the evolutionary and developmental branches of biology in order to understand evolutionary change. Reviewing the book for BioScience, Stanley K. Sessions found it "alternately delightful, frustrating, challenging, insightful, naive, and generally stimulating." Sessions traced some of his frustration to the reality that science has not yet provided sufficient information about cellular activity during development and some to what he deemed mistakes in the book itself, but he maintained that it remains "well worth reading" and "a valuable contribution" to the field.

Living Fossil: The Story of the Coelacanth benefits from Thomson's personal study of a species of fish that had been presumed extinct for millions of years before turning up alive off the South African coast in 1938. Thomson discusses the discovery of the five-foot-long, 150-pound fish, unique details of its swimming ability, conservation issues, and even the concept of continental drift, among other topics. Genevieve Stuttaford in Publishers Weekly described the book as "an intriguing biological detective story."

In 1993 Thomson published a collection of essays drawn from his American Scientist columns under the title The Common but Less Frequent Loon and Other Essays. The essays cover a wide range of topics in three categories: biological diversity, the life of a scientist, and evolution. Thomson wrote a new article to introduce each section. Several reviewers likened Thomson's writing to that of popular biologist Stephen Jay Gould, and a Publishers Weekly critic concluded by remarking on the author's "stimulating observations."

One of Thomson's most widely reviewed books is Before Darwin: Reconciling God and Nature, which was published in England as The Watch on the Heath: Science and Religion before Darwin. In this work Thomson chronicles a variety of attempts from 1700 to 1859 (the year naturalist Charles Darwin's Origin of Species was published) to resolve the tensions between the scientific and Judeo-Christian accounts of creation and the course of nature. The British title refers to the analogy made by English theologian William Paley in his book Natural Theology that just as the complexity of a watch implies an intelligent designer, the complexity of the natural world does so also—an analogy frequently mentioned in Thomson's work. It is an "engrossing and rewarding book," wrote David Lindley in the Wilson Quarterly, both "fascinating and persuasive." Historian Geoffrey Cantor in a Times Higher Education Supplement review, on the other hand, expressed concern about the "rather limited range of historical sources" used by Thomson and claimed that the book "fails to appreciate the historical contexts of these 17th and 18th-century writers." Cantor regarded Thomson as correct on points such as the difficulties of Paley's book and observed that "at many points in the book, comparisons and contrasts are interestingly drawn between Paley's views and those of Darwin." History Today writer Patricia Fara noted how Thomson "helps modern readers jump through some theological hoops to understand why Charles Darwin's predecessors were so resistant to evolutionary ideas." Fara felt that Thomson's arguments were impaired by what she deemed a Victorian concept of science at war with religion, but she also observed that he "expounds with great clarity the dilemmas confronted by naturalists who wanted to embrace evolutionary suggestions without relinquishing the security of scriptural tradition." Lindley also pointed out the author's apparent knowledge of religious history and remarked that "most impressive in Thomson's artfully told tale is his evenhanded respect for the losers as well as the winners."

Thomson told CA: "Since my retirement from Oxford, I have been able to devote myself full-time to research and writing in the history of science. Works in press include studies of Thomas Jefferson (A Passion for Nature: Jefferson and Natural History) and Charles Darwin (The Young Darwin: Ideas and Influences). I am currently absorbed in study of the place of science in the fledging United States of 1776 to 1800—a work that continues ideas developed in both The Legacy of the Mastodon and A Passion for Nature. I continue to be fascinated also by the (changing and difficult) role of museums in contemporary life."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Biology Teacher, October, 1993, Rita Hoots, review of Living Fossil: The Story of the Coelacanth, p. 446.

American Scientist, July-August, 1989, Olivier Rieppel, review of Morphogenesis and Evolution, p. 381.

American Zoologist, spring, 1991, Robert M. Langille, review of Morphogenesis and Evolution, p. 278.

BioScience, September, 1989, Stanley K. Sessions, review of Morphogenesis and Evolution, p. 566.

Booklist, October 1, 1993, Whitney Scott, review of The Common but Less Frequent Loon and Other Essays, p. 231.

Choice, April, 1996, E.A. Kay, review of HMS Beagle: The Story of Darwin's Ship, p. 1332; November, 2005, P.O. Ingram, review of Before Darwin: Reconciling God and Nature, p. 508.

Christian Century, April 18, 2006, J. David Pleins, review of Before Darwin, p. 37.

Evolution, November, 1989, Brian K. Hall, review of Morphogenesis and Evolution, p. 1571.

History Today, July, 2005, Patricia Fara, review of The Watch on the Heath: Science and Religion before Darwin, p. 62.

Library Journal, October 15, 1993, Michael D. Cramer, review of The Common but Less Frequent Loon and Other Essays, p. 85.

Nature, July 20, 1989, Pere Alberch, review of Morphogenesis and Evolution, p. 196; September 5, 1991, Michael A. Taylor, review of Living Fossil, p. 29; March 24, 1994, Michael Taylor, review of The Common but Less Frequent Loon and Other Essays, p. 362; August 24, 1995, Janet Browne, review of HMS Beagle, p. 651; June 27, 1996, review of The Common but Less Frequent Loon and Other Essays, p. 750.

New Scientist, October 8, 1994, review of The Common but Less Frequent Loon and Other Essays, p. 43; November 11, 1995, review of HMS Beagle, p. 47; May 14, 2005, Roy Herbert, "Wise and Wonderful," p. 53.

New York Times Book Review, July 7, 1991, James Ferrell, review of Living Fossil, p. 7.

Publishers Weekly, April 12, 1991, Genevieve Stuttaford, review of Living Fossil, p. 50; October 18, 1993, review of The Common but Less Frequent Loon and Other Essays, p. 60; May 16, 2005, review of Before Darwin, p. 59.

Quarterly Review of Biology, March, 1995, Fredrica H. van Berkum, review of The Common but Less Frequent Loon and Other Essays, pp. 63-64; December, 2005, Elof Axel Carlson, review of Before Darwin, p. 465.

Science, June 28, 1991, John E. McCosker, review of Living Fossil, p. 1863; September 2, 2005, Alan Cutler, "200 Years of Accommodation," p. 1493.

Science Books and Films, March, 1994, review of The Common but Less Frequent Loon and Other Essays, p. 38; November-December, 2005, Peter F. Arvedson, review of Before Darwin, p. 255.

Sciences, November-December, 1991, Laurence A. Marschall, review of Living Fossil, p. 49.

SciTech Book News, November, 1994, review of The Common but Less Frequent Loon and Other Essays, p. 16.

Skeptic (Altadena, CA), summer, 2007, Warren Allmon, "Measuring the Deity," p. 72.

Times Higher Education Supplement, December 9, 2005, Geoffrey Cantor, "Faith in Step with March of Progress," p. 25.

Times Literary Supplement, November 11, 2005, Thomas Dixon, "Fossil Gospels," pp. 28-29.

Virginia Quarterly Review, winter, 1996, review of HMS Beagle, p. 8.

Wilson Quarterly, summer, 2005, David Lindley, "In the Beginning," p. 109.