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 known as evo-devo, is a field of biological research that compares the developmental biology, developmental processes of different organisms to infer how developmental processes evolution, evolved. ...

Imperial College Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a cultural district in South Kensington that included museums ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. 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 newspa ...

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 channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

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

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

such as '' What Darwin Didn't Know'' (2009), ''Aristotle's Lagoon'' (2010), and ''Secret Science of Pop'' (2012).

Early life and education

A Dutch citizen, Leroi was born in

Wellington Wellington 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 third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

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

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and Canada. He was awarded a

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

degree by

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia, Canada, with three campuses in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, a fourth in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, Bible Hill, and a second medical school campus ...

, Halifax, Canada in 1989, and a Ph.D. by the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...

in 1993. This was followed by postdoctoral work at the

Albert Einstein College of Medicine The Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a Private university, private medical school in New York City. Founded in 1953, Einstein is an independent degree-granting institution within the Montefiore Einstein Health System. Einstein hosts Doc ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

using the

nematode The nematodes ( or ; ; ), roundworms or eelworms constitute the phylum Nematoda. Species in the phylum inhabit a broad range of environments. Most species are free-living, feeding on microorganisms, but many are parasitic. Parasitic worms (h ...

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 Hybrid word, blend of the Greek ''caeno-'' (recent), ''r ...

'' as an experimental organism.

Career

In 2001, Leroi was appointed lecturer at

Imperial College, London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

. 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'' (titled ''Extraterrestrial'' outside the UK) 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 (director), Martin Durkin. The film Climate change denial, denies the Scientific consensus on climate change, scientific consensus about ...

'', 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 physiological hypothesis that acclimating to a particular environment (usually thermal) provides an organism with advantages in that environment. First formally tested by Armand Marie Leroi, Al ...

. In 2005, Leroi published an article in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' 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 '' What Darwin Didn't Know'', which charts the progress in the field of

Evolutionary Theory Evolution is the change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, resulting in certai ...

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 M ...

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

Lesbos Lesbos or Lesvos ( ) 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 and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, eighth largest ...

and suggesting that

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

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 evolutionary music 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 Heredity, heritable traits characteristic of a population over generation ...

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 Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

. 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 Scie ...

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

US Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the 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), on ...

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 s ...

'' in 2015. Explaining the contributions of

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

to the evolution of music, he said, "They're not making that 964revolution, 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 29 member states, two prospect member states, and one associate member state. EMBL was created in ...

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 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 Runciman Award winners