Neil Shubin (born December 22, 1960) is an American

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

evolutionary biologist Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes such as natural selection, common descent, and speciation that produced the diversity of life on Earth. In the 1930s, the discipline of evolutionary biol ...

and

popular science Popular science (also called pop-science or popsci) is an interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is more broad ranging. It may be written ...

writer. He is the Robert R. Bensley Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, Associate Dean of Organismal Biology and Anatomy and Professor on the Committee of Evolutionary Biology at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

along with being the Provost of the

Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educationa ...

. He is best known for his co-discovery of '' Tiktaalik roseae'' with Ted Daeschler and Farish Jenkins.

Biography

Raised in Overbrook Hills section of Lower Merion Township (contiguous to City of Philadelphia) and a graduate of

Lower Merion High School Lower Merion High School is a public high school in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, in the Main Line suburbs of Philadelphia. It is one of two high schools in the Lower Merion School District; the other one is Harriton High School. Lower Merion serves ...

, Shubin earned a A.B. from Columbia College of

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in 1982 and a Ph.D. in organismic and evolutionary biology from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1987. He also studied at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. Shubin was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, 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 ...

in 2011. Shubin was

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

' "Person of the Week" in April 2006 when ''Tiktaalik'' was unveiled, and made appearances on ''

The Colbert Report ''The Colbert Report'' ( ) is an American late night television, late-night Late-night talk show, talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December ...

'' January 14, 2008 and January 9, 2013. The Communication Awards of the

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), also known as the National Academies, is a Congressional charter, congressionally chartered organization that serves as the collective scientific national academy of the Uni ...

awarded a $20,000 prize for excellence in communicating science to the general public to Michael Rosenfeld, David Dugan, and Neil Shubin in Film/Radio/TV on October 14, 2015, for ''Your Inner Fish''. The awards are given to individuals in four categories: books, film/radio/TV, magazine/newspaper and online, and are supported by the W. M. Keck Foundation. Neil Shubin hosted ''Your Inner Fish'' on PBS. The show was produced by Windfall Films and Tangled Bank Studios, a production company for the

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland with additional facilities in Ashburn, Virginia. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American busin ...

that makes materials available for science classroom education. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2017. He also served as interim co-director of the

Marine Biological Laboratory The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is an international center for research and education in biological and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution that was independent ...

in 2017. Below is a list of taxa that Shubin has contributed to naming:

Awards and honors

In 2019, Shubin was named the recipient of the Roy Chapman Andrews Society Distinguished Explorer Award. Shubin was chosen primarily because of his discoveries to understand the origin of organs in the human body and the connectiveness of all life.

Publications

*
Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body
'. New York:

Pantheon Books Pantheon Books is an American book publishing imprint. Founded in 1942 as an independent publishing house in New York City by Kurt and Helen Wolff, it specialized in introducing progressive European works to American readers. In 1961, it was ...

, 2008. *
The Universe Within: Discovering the Common History of Rocks, Planets, and People
'. Pantheon Books, New York City 2013. Universe within, discovering common history
''New York Journal of Books'' *
Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA
'. New York: Pantheon Books, 2020.
''Ends of the Earth: Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and Our Future''
New York: Dutton, 2025.

References

External links

* ttp://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/8008 Video (and audio) of interview/discussion about "Wet Paleontology" with Neil Shubinand Carl Zimmer on Bloggingheads.tv *
Neil Shubin on The Colbert Report. Jan 14, 2008
*
PBS website for 'Your Inner Fish' series
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shubin, Neil 20th-century American biologists American paleontologists American science writers Columbia College (New York) alumni American evolutionary biologists Harvard University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Chicago faculty University of Pennsylvania faculty University of Pennsylvania Department of Biology faculty 1960 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American scientists Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Members of the American Philosophical Society People associated with the Field Museum of Natural History