Armand Marie Leroi (born 16 July 1964) is a New Zealand-born Dutch author, broadcaster, and professor of

evolutionary developmental biology Evolutionary developmental biology (informally, evo-devo) is a field of biological research that compares the developmental processes of different organisms to infer how developmental processes evolved. The field grew from 19th-century beginni ...

Imperial College Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. He received the

Guardian First Book Award The Guardian First Book Award was a literary award presented by ''The Guardian'' newspaper. It annually recognised one book by a new writer. It was established in 1999, replacing the Guardian Fiction Award or Guardian Fiction Prize that the newspap ...

in 2004 for his book ''Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body''. He has presented scientific documentaries on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

such as ''Alien Worlds'' (2005) and ''What Makes Us Human'' (2006), and

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

such as ''

What Darwin Didn't Know ''What Darwin Didn't Know'' is a documentary show on BBC Four presented by Armand Marie Leroi which charts the progress in the field of Evolutionary Theory since the original publication of Charles Darwin's ''On the Origin of Species '' ...

'' (2009), ''Aristotle's Lagoon'' (2010), and ''Secret Science of Pop'' (2012).

Early life and education

A Dutch citizen, Leroi was born in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, New Zealand. His youth was spent in New Zealand,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and Canada. He was awarded a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree by

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the fou ...

, Halifax, Canada in 1989, and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

by the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

in 1993. This was followed by postdoctoral work at the

Albert Einstein College of Medicine Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a research-intensive medical school located in the Morris Park neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City. Founded in 1953, Einstein operates as an independent degree-granting institution as part of t ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

using the

nematode The nematodes ( or grc-gre, Νηματώδη; la, Nematoda) or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda (also called Nemathelminthes), with plant-Parasitism, parasitic nematodes also known as eelworms. They are a diverse animal phylum inhab ...

Caenorhabditis elegans ''Caenorhabditis elegans'' () is a free-living transparent nematode about 1 mm in length that lives in temperate soil environments. It is the type species of its genus. The name is a blend of the Greek ''caeno-'' (recent), ''rhabditis'' (ro ...

'' as an experimental organism.

Career

In 2001, Leroi was appointed lecturer at

Imperial College, London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

. He has written several books, including ''Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body.'' In 2004 he adapted his book into a television documentary series for Britain's

entitled ''Human Mutants''. Leroi has presented two other TV documentary series for Channel 4: ''Alien Worlds'' in 2005, and ''What Makes Us Human'' in 2006. Despite his TV appearances, Leroi has expressed scepticism about the truthfulness of television creatives. In an email exchange with TV director Martin Durkin, concerning the latter's documentary ''

The Great Global Warming Swindle ''The Great Global Warming Swindle'' is a 2007 British polemical documentary film directed by Martin Durkin. The film denies the scientific consensus about the reality and causes of climate change, justifying this by suggesting that climatolo ...

'', Leroi wrote: "left to their own devices, TV producers simply cannot be trusted to tell the truth". He is also known as one of the first testers of the

beneficial acclimation hypothesis The beneficial acclimation hypothesis (BAH) is the physiology, physiological hypothesis that acclimatization, acclimating to a particular environment (usually thermal) provides an organism with advantages in that environment. First formally teste ...

. In 2005, Leroi published an article in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' entitled "A Family Tree in Every Gene", which argued for the usefulness of racial types in medical genetics. In January 2009 Leroi presented the BBC4 documentary ''

'', which charts the progress in the field of

Evolutionary Theory Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

since the original publication of ''

On the Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life''),The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by Me ...

'' in 1859. In January 2010 Leroi presented the BBC4 documentary ''Aristotle's Lagoon'', filmed on the Greek island of

Lesbos Lesbos or Lesvos ( el, Λέσβος, Lésvos ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece. It is separated from Anatolia, Asia Minor ...

and suggesting that

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

was the world's first biologist. The documentary account was expanded in his 2014 book ''The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science.'' He accepted Aristotle as his "scientific hero", describing: "His genius was simply to invent biology." Leroi collaborated on the

DarwinTunes DarwinTunes was a research project into the use of natural selection to create music led by Bob MacCallum and Armand Leroi, scientists at Imperial College London. The project asks volunteers on the Internet to listen to automatically generated sound ...

evolutionary music Evolutionary music is the audio counterpart to evolutionary art, whereby algorithmic music is created using an evolutionary algorithm. The process begins with a population of individuals which by some means or other produce audio (e.g. a piece, m ...

project, using

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charle ...

to create music. The research findings explained how music choice evolved in the pattern of

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

. The study was published in the ''

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of Sci ...

'' in 2012. Leroi's research team also analysed the musical properties of the

US Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming i ...

between 1960 and 2010, and found that

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

emerged in three stylistic revolutions around 1964, 1983 and 1991. The study was published in the ''

Royal Society Open Science ''Royal Society Open Science'' is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal published by the Royal Society since September 2014. Its launch was announced in February 2014. It covers all scientific fields and publishes all articles which are sc ...

'' in 2015. Explaining the contributions of

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

to the evolution of music, he said, "They're not making that

964 Year 964 ( CMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine War: Emperor Nikephoros II continues the reconquest of south-eastern Anatoli ...

revolution, they're joining it. In 2016, he presented ''The Secret Science of Pop'' on BBC4.

Awards and honours

Leroi received the EMBO Award for Communication in the Life Sciences of the

European Molecular Biology Laboratory The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to molecular biology research and is supported by 27 member states, two prospect states, and one associate member state. EMBL was created in 1974 and ...

in 2006. In 2004, he won the

for ''Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body''. He was awarded the 2014 JBS Haldane Lecture of

The Genetics Society The Genetics Society is a British learned society. It was founded by William Bateson and Edith Rebecca Saunders in 1919 and celebrated its centenary year in 2019. It is therefore one of the oldest learned societies devoted to genetics. Its membe ...

. The same year he received the London Hellenic Prize of the

Hellenic Centre The Hellenic Centre is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation located at 16-18 Paddington Street, London. The Hellenic Centre is a cultural organisation founded run by the Hellenic Community Trust, a company limited by guarantee, and regist ...

for ''The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science.''

Books

*''Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body'' (Viking/Penguin, 2004) *''The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science'' (Viking, 9/25/2014)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leroi, Armand Marie 1964 births Living people University of California, Irvine alumni Developmental biologists Albert Einstein College of Medicine alumni Academics of Imperial College London Evolutionary biologists People from Wellington City New Zealand television presenters BBC television presenters