The Stephen Jay Gould Prize
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The Stephen Jay Gould Prize is awarded annually by the Society for the Study of Evolution to recognize individuals whose sustained and exemplary efforts have advanced public understanding of evolutionary science and its importance in biology, education, and everyday life in the spirit of Stephen Jay Gould.
The winner of the 2011 Stephen Jay Gould Prize is Kenneth R. Miller, a Professor of Biology at Brown University. Through his writings, teaching and appearances in court, Dr. Miller has proved an eloquent and passionate defender of evolution and the scientific method. Dr. Miller received his PhD in Biology from the University of Colorado and taught from 1974 to 1980 at Harvard University. While at Harvard he frequently interacted with and was inspired by Stephen Jay Gould. He first became aware of antievolutionism as a beginning professor at Brown University. His passion and skill at rebutting the claims of creationists eventually led him to serve as a key witness in several important and high-profile evolution-creationist court cases, including the well-known Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School Districtcase in 2005, the decision for which effectively forestalled further attempts to mandate the teaching of intelligent design in high school science curricula. Dr. Miller is also well known for his widely used high-school biology textbook, Biology, co-authored with Joseph Levine. With its strong unifying theme
