Steven Jay Gould has straddled the scientific and literary communities as a successful author and researcher.

Evolutionary biologist, paleontologist, and science writer 1941-

Stephen Jay Gould (1941-) is an American evolutionary biologist, paleontologist, and science writer. Gould teaches at Harvard University and is known in the lay community for his essays in the Natural History journal. In the scientific community he is known for his ideas on evolutionary theory. He has been awarded many literary and academic honors, including the National Book Award and a MacArthur Prize.

Born on September 10, 1941, in New York City, Gould grew up in Queens, New York. His father was a court stenographer and an accomplished amateur naturalist. At five years of age, while taking a trip with his father to the American Museum of Natural History, Gould saw a reconstruction of the dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex. From then on, he...