Niall Shanks

Who is Niall Shanks?

Niall Shanks, was a native of Cheshire, England, was educated at Rossall School, and later at the University of Leeds and the University of Liverpool. Shanks left England for Canada in 1981 and earned his Ph.D. at the University of Alberta, Canada in 1987. Shanks moved to the United States in 1987. For a number of years Shanks was a member of the Department of Philosophy at East Tennessee State University, where he also held positions in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He then moved to Wichita State University where he was the Curtis D. Gridley Professor in the History and Philosophy of Science.

Shanks served a term as President of the Southwest and Rocky Mountain Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; He was vice-president and board member of Americans For Medical Advancement for ten years; and an honorary Board Member of Internet Infidels. In 1993 he served a term as President of the Tennessee Philosophical Association.

Shanks' early research interests were focused on issues in the philosophical foundations of quantum mechanics. He later wrote about the case against Intelligent Design and actively defended evolution. Beginning in the 1990s he explored the implications of evolutionary biology for biomedical research and was actively involved in this until his death. Shanks was also interested in the history of medicine and the role played by medicine in the scientific revolutions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.