Sahotra Sarkar (born 1962) is an Indian-American professor at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, specializing in the

philosophy of biology The philosophy of biology is a subfield of philosophy of science, which deals with epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical issues in the biological and biomedical sciences. Although philosophers of science and philosophers generally have lon ...

Education and career

Sarkar is originally from India where he lived in

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nepal, ...

until 1975. He earned a BA from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, where he won a

Van Amringe Mathematical Prize The Department of Mathematics at Columbia University has presented a Professor Van Amringe Mathematical Prize each year (since 1910). The prize was established in 1910 by George G. Dewitt, Class of 1867. It was named after John Howard Van Amringe, ...

, and a MA and PhD from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

where he worked with

William_C._Wimsatt William C. Wimsatt (born May 27, 1941) is professor emeritus in the Department of Philosophy, the Committee on Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science (previously Conceptual Foundations of Science), and the Committee on Evolutionary Biology at ...

. He was a Fellow of the

Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin The Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin (german: Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin) is an interdisciplinary institute founded in 1981 in Grunewald, Berlin, Germany, dedicated to research projects in the natural and social sciences. It is modeled ...

(1996–1997), the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology (1993–1994), and the Edelstein Centre for the Philosophy of Science (1992). He was a visiting scholar at the

Max Planck Institute for the History of Science The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (German: Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte) is a scientific research institute founded in March 1994. It is dedicated to addressing fundamental questions of the history of knowledg ...

in Berlin (1997–1998, 2002–2003) and taught at

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

before moving to Texas.

Philosophical and scientific Work

Sarkar is one of the founders of systematic conservation planning within

conservation biology Conservation biology is the study of the conservation of nature and of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction and the erosion of biotic interactions. It is an int ...

, promoting the use of multi-criteria decision analysis and supervising the creation of the ConsNet decision support system. In this context he has advocated participatory environmental planning and strongly criticized the imposition of authoritarian and discriminatory environmental policies on local residents. His laboratory also works on a suite of neglected tropical diseases (or

diseases of poverty Diseases of poverty (also known as poverty-related diseases) are diseases that are more prevalent in low-income populations. They include infectious diseases, as well as diseases related to malnutrition and poor health behaviour. Poverty is one o ...

) including

Chagas disease Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is a tropical parasitic disease caused by ''Trypanosoma cruzi''. It is spread mostly by insects in the subfamily ''Triatominae'', known as "kissing bugs". The symptoms change over the cou ...

, dengue,

leishmaniasis Leishmaniasis is a wide array of clinical manifestations caused by parasites of the trypanosome genus ''Leishmania''. It is generally spread through the bite of phlebotomine sandflies, ''Phlebotomus'' and ''Lutzomyia'', and occurs most freq ...

, and tick-borne diseases. In the philosophy of biology, Sarkar is known for his work on

reductionism Reductionism is any of several related philosophical ideas regarding the associations between phenomena which can be described in terms of other simpler or more fundamental phenomena. It is also described as an intellectual and philosophical pos ...

and criticism of hereditarian thinking in biology as well as the use of informational concepts in

molecular biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

. In the philosophy of physics Sarkar is known for controversially defending the conventionalism of simultaneity in special relativity (with John Stachel) and suggesting a stochastic modification of quantum dynamics. Earlier in his career he worked in mathematical population genetics where, in collaboration with Wing Ma and Guido Sandri, he was responsible for the standard recursion relation to compute the Luria–Delbrück distribution in bacterial genetics. Sarkar is also a noted critic of

creationism Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism is 't ...

and

intelligent design Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins". Numbers 2006, p. 373; " Dcaptured headlines for its bold attempt to ...

and played an important role in combating attempts to introduce creationism into high school curricula in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

Allegations of sexual misconduct

In 2017, Sahotra Sarkar was suspended for a semester after multiple allegations of sexual misconduct with students. Although he denied some of the allegations, he admitted to discussing the possibility of one student posing for nude photographs for money. In November 2019, a group of students interrupted a class Sarkar was teaching in order to protest his continued presence at the university. Calling his behaviour "repulsive, predatory and wildly inappropriate", the protesters hoped to draw attention to the University of Texas' broader policy of allowing professors found guilty of sexual misconduct to return to teaching duties.

Books

* Sahotra Sarkar, ''Genetics and Reductionism (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology)''. Cambridge University Press (October 13, 1998) * Sahotra Sarkar, ''Molecular Models of Life: Philosophical Papers on Molecular Biology (Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology)''. The MIT Press (March 30, 2007) *Sahotra Sarkar, ''Biodiversity and Environmental Philosophy: An Introduction (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology)''. Cambridge University Press (September 19, 2005) *Sahotra Sarkar, ''Doubting Darwin: Creationist Designs on Evolution''. Blackwell (April 20, 2007) *Sahotra Sarkar, ''Environmental Philosophy: From Theory to Practice''. Wiley-Blackewell (2012) *Chris Margules and Sahotra Sarkar, ''Systematic Conservation Planning (Ecology, Biodiversity and Conservation)''. Cambridge University Press. (October 8, 2007) *Sahotra Sarkar, Ed., ''Science and Philosophy in the Twentieth Century: Basic Works of Logical Empiricism''. 6 Volumes. Routledge (February 1, 1996) *Sahotra Sarkar, Ed., ''Logical Empiricism and the Special Sciences : Reichenbach, Feigl, and Nagel (Science and Philosophy in the Twentieth Century: Basic Works of Logical Empiricism)'' Routledge; 1 edition (February 1, 1996) * Sahotra Sarkar and Jessica Pfeifer, Eds., ''The Philosophy of Science: An Encyclopedia'' Routledge.(December 9, 2005) * Sahotra Sarkar and Anya Plutynksi, Eds., ''Companion to the Philosophy of Biology (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy)''. Wiley-Blackwell (March 14, 2008)

References

External links

Sahotra Sarkar
at

MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarkar, Sahotra 1962 births 21st-century American biologists American philosophers Columbia College (New York) alumni Critics of creationism University of Chicago alumni University of Texas at Austin faculty Living people Philosophers of science Indian emigrants to the United States People from Darjeeling