Graham Bell

Who is Graham Bell?

Graham Arthur Charlton Bell is an English academic, writer, and evolutionary biologist with interests in the evolution of sexual reproduction and the maintenance of variation. He developed the "Tangled Bank" theory of evolutionary genetics after observing the asexual and sexual behavior patterns of aphids as well as monogonont rotifers.

Born in Leicester, England, Bell attended Wyggeston School before graduating from St Peter's College, Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1970, a Master of Arts degree in 1971, and a Ph.D. in animal ecology in 1974. He emigrated to Canada in 1975 where he worked as a biologist for the Alberta Civil Service until 1976. In 1976, he joined the faculty of McGill University as a temporary lecturer. He was appointed a Professor in 1989. In 1992, he was appointed Molson Chair of Genetics. He was Director of the Redpath Museum from 1995 to 2005.

He is the author of The Masterpiece of Nature which was described by Richard Dawkins as a 'beautifully written tour de force', Sex and Death in Protozoa: The History of Obsession and Selection: The Mechanism of Evolution.