Geerat J. Vermeij is a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

-born

paleoecologist Paleoecology (also spelled palaeoecology) is the study of interactions between organisms and/or interactions between organisms and their environments across geologic timescales. As a discipline, paleoecology interacts with, depends on and informs ...

and

evolutionary biologist Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life for ...

in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

. He studies marine

molluscs Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil sp ...

both as fossils and as living creatures. He received a

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to ...

in 1992, and in 2000 was awarded the

Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal The Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal is awarded by the U.S. United States National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences "for meritorious work in zoology or paleontology study published in a three- to five-year period." Named after Daniel Gir ...

from the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

Early life and education

Vermeij was born 28 September 1946 in

Sappemeer Sappemeer () is a town in the Dutch province of Groningen. It is located in the municipality of Midden-Groningen to the east of Hoogezand. Sappemeer was a separate municipality until 1949, when it merged with Hoogezand. The village is the Europea ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Blind from the age of three, he studied

Braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are Blindness, blind, Deafblindness, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on Paper embossing, embossed paper ...

at the Prins Alexander Stichting Boarding School in Huis Ter Heide. He moved from The Netherlands to

Nutley, New Jersey Nutley is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 30,143. What is now Nutley was originally incorporated as Franklin Township by an act of the New Jersey Legisla ...

at age ten, and graduated from

Nutley High School Nutley High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school in the Township of Nutley, in Essex County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as the lone secondary school of the Nutley Public Schoo ...

in 1965. Since the age of ten, Vermeij wanted to be a

conchologist Conchology () is the study of mollusc shells. Conchology is one aspect of malacology, the study of molluscs; however, malacology is the study of molluscs as whole organisms, whereas conchology is confined to the study of their shells. It includ ...

. Vermeij graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

in 1968 and received his Ph.D. in

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

and

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1971.

Career

Vermeij studies coevolutionary relationships between predator and prey organisms, with a focus on marine

mollusks Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

. His research argues that an important evolutionary mechanism is the process of escalation, which occurs when species adapt to, or are limited by, their competitors,

predators Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill the ...

, and

parasites Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted structurally to this way of lif ...

. In lieu of sight, Vermeij uses the sense of touch to better understand mollusk morphology. Throughout his career, he has challenged the assumption that people with disabilities like blindness cannot conduct scientific research.

Bibliography

* ''Evolution and Escalation: An Ecological History of Life'' * ''A Natural History of Shells'' * ''Privileged Hands: A Scientific Life'' * ''Nature: An Economic History'' * ''The Evolutionary World: How Adaptation Explains Everything from Seashells to Civilization'' ().

References

External links

Vermeij faculty page at UCD
1946 births Living people Scientists with disabilities American malacologists Dutch malacologists Nutley High School alumni People from Nutley, New Jersey Paleobiologists American blind people MacArthur Fellows Princeton University alumni Yale University alumni Dutch emigrants to the United States University of California, Davis faculty People from Hoogezand-Sappemeer Blind academics {{US-scientist-stub