Evolutionary Biologist B. Rosemary Grant Shares the Royal Medal in Biology

B. Rosemary Grant, senior research biologist emerita in ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University in New Jersey, will share that the Royal Medal in Biology. The award was established in 1826 by King George IV. It is administered by the Royal Society, which was founded in 1660.

Grant will share the award and the £10,000 prize with her husband Peter Grant, professor of zoology emeritus at Princeton. They are the first husband-wife team to be awarded the Royal Medal in Biology. The Grants are being honored for their research on a group of 18 bird species known as Darwin’s finches on the Galapagos Islands. The will receive the medal in London on October 30.

“To be awarded the Royal Medal in Biology is an extraordinary privilege and honor,” Rosemary Grant said. “Our research has demonstrated evolution of birds in a natural environment, and by integrating genomics with ecological and behavioral studies, it has provided a deeper understanding into how and why this planet is so extraordinarily rich in biodiversity.”

B. Rosemary Grant is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. She holds a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from Uppsala University in Sweden.