International Balzan Foundation Peter and Rosemary Grant “LIVE

International Balzan Foundation A C C A D E M I A N A Z I O N A L E D E I L I N C E I Peter and Rosemary Grant “LIVE” EVOLUTION Peter and Rosemary Grant are English evolutionary biologists, and the couple are both Professors emeritus of zoology at Princeton University (USA). In 2005, they were awarded the Balzan Prize in population biology “for their remarkable long-term studies demonstrating evolution in action in Galápagos finches. They have demonstrated how very rapid changes in body and beak size in response to changes in the food supply are driven by natural selection. They have also elucidated the mechanisms by which new species arise and how genetic diversity is maintained in natural populations. The work of the Grants has had a seminal influence in the fields of population biology, evolution and ecology.” Among the most significant exponents in evolutionary science in the world, they are also well-known in Italy for the importance of their observations on natural selection and on the evolution of the species of finch that Darwin himself observed and collected on the Galápagos Islands in 1835, in the course of his famous voyage that led to the formulation of his theory of evolution. In that archipelago, the two scientists have been carrying out their research activity for 38 years, spending several months a year on the small, uncontaminated island of Daphne Mayor. The observation of the life, physiology and behavior of the animals, together with all of the environmental factors in that long period has made it possible for them to trace the evolutionary history of fourteen different species of finches starting with a common ancestor from one million years ago. In studying these little creatures, they have been able to reach a more in-depth vision as to why the world is so biologically rich and diversified. Field research and laboratory studies are accompanied by constant work spreading their findings, which takes Peter and Rosemary Grant all over the world to hold conferences and give lections in order to update colleagues and students on the periodical progress of their observations. On 13 May 2010, in Rome, the lecture at the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei is part of their effort in this respect. Their presence in Milan in February 2009 was also significant, with a lecture at the Bicocca University and a highly successful Balzan Distinguished Lecture for Darwin Day at the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale, especially important as a celebration of the 150th anniversary of evolutionary theory, and the 200th of Darwin’s birth. Their publishing activity is also important in terms of spreading the results of their work: for their book Evolutionary Dynamics of a Natural Population: The Large Cactus Finch of the Galapagos (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1989), they received the Wildlife Publication Award from The Wildlife Society in 1991. Jonathan Weiner’s book, The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time (New York, Alfred Knopf, 1994), in which Rosemary and Peter Grant discussed the fascinating results of twenty years of research, won the Pulitzer Prize (Non-Fiction) in 1995, and was translated into Italian with the title Il becco del fringuello: giorno per giorno l’evoluzione della specie (Milan, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1995). Their latest book is How and Why Species Multiply. The Radiation of Darwin’s Finches (Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey), published in 2007, as of yet unpublished in Italy. The publication of another book is in progress, also for Princeton University Press, In Search of the Causes of Evolution. From Field Observations to Mechanisms. International Balzan Foundation “Prize” - Milan Press Office: tel:+39 02 7600 2212 - email: [email protected] - Marcello Foresti +39 334 1687132 .

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