Richard A. Goldsby is an American immunologist who is professor of biology at

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. In addition to his specialism, he has written on a variety of topics, including the social and biological significance of

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

and of the human racial differences. He is a notable proponent of the view that races are biological, as well as social constructs.

Life and career

Goldsby received a PhD in chemistry at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1961. He is an immunologist, interested in the cellular and molecular biology of the immune response, and has served as professor of biology at

since 1982. He is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

. His interest in the biology of race arose from efforts to understand the biological roots of the debates about a relationship between race and behavior and led to his publication of ''Race and Races'' (Macmillan, 1971, 2nd Ed. 1977). Goldsby argues that there are genetic differences between the races of man, as measured by different gene frequencies and that races differ in intelligence and behaviour through these genetic differences. However, in a 1993 review of

Daniel Seligman Daniel Seligman (September 25, 1924 – January 31, 2009) was an American newspaper editor and columnist at '' Fortune'' magazine from 1950 to 1997. He also wrote for ''Forbes'', ''Commentary'', ''The American Mercury'', '' Commonweal'', and ''The ...

's book ''A Question of Intelligence'' he wrote that "I find this book pernicious because its clear purpose is to infect readers with the view that both the established schools of behavioural psychology and human genetics consider it scientifically demonstrated that group differences in black-white IQs are largely genetic in origin. Such a demonstration has not been made and Seligman probably understands that it has not." In 1988 he wrote ''Thinking AIDS'' in collaboration with anthropologist

Mary Catherine Bateson Mary Catherine Bateson (December 8, 1939 – January 2, 2021) was an American writer and cultural anthropologist. The daughter of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, Bateson was a noted author in her field with many published monographs. ...

. They discussed the history of the conditions and its relation to social mores in America. They argued that a " magic bullet" against the condition would be very difficult to create, but that coercive methods to change patterns of behavior would be counterproductive.Thinking AIDS

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

Goldsby is also one of the authors of the Kuby Immunology textbook, the standard undergraduate textbook on immunology. Goldsby is

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

References

External links

Richard Goldsby's Bio at Amherst

VASCI page for Richard Goldsby
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldsby, Richard 21st-century American biologists Living people University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty Amherst College faculty University of California, Berkeley alumni Year of birth missing (living people)