Geerat J. Vermeij

Who is Geerat J. Vermeij?

Geerat J. Vermeij, born in the Netherlands, is a professor of geology at the University of California at Davis. Blind from the age of three, he graduated from Princeton University in 1968 and received his Ph.D. in biology and geology from Yale University in 1971.

An evolutionary biologist and paleontologist, he studies marine molluscs both as fossils and as living creatures. He starting writing about his Escalation hypothesis in the 1980s. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1992. In 2000 Vermeij was awarded the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal from the National Academy of Sciences.

His books include Evolution and Escalation: An Ecological History of Life, A Natural History of Shells, Privileged Hands, Nature: An Economic History, and The Evolutionary World: How Adaptation Explains Everything from Seashells to Civilization.