Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis

A historian of science of Egyptian-Greek origin, Smocovitis earned a Bachelor degree in Biology from the University of Western Ontario (London, Canada), and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and in the new Program for History and Philosophy of Science and Technology from Cornell University in 1988. She has done research and widely published in the fields of history, philosophy and social study of the twentieth century biological sciences, especially evolutionary biology, systematics, ecology and genetics. She explored the establishment of the modern theory of evolution in her first book, Unifying Biology: The Evolutionary Synthesis and Evolutionary Biology (1996), designated as one of Choice’s Outstanding Academic Books of 1997. Smocovitis is currently preparing a biography of evolutionary biologist George Ledyard Stebbins (1906-2000) and a history of the Botanical Society of America. A co-editor of the New Dictionary of the History of Ideas (2002-2004), she has been or is a member of the board of a wide range of scientific journals including Neusis-Journal of Greek History and Philosophy of Science and Technology; Journal of the History of Biology; and Osiris and Isis, the two journals edited by the History of Science Society. The recipient of six teaching awards during her 20 years at the University of Florida, Smocovitis has been elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar in 2008-2009, she is currently (2009-2011) a Distinguished Alumni Professor of the University of Florida.