Sergey Gavrilets

Sergey Gavrilets is a Russian-born American scientist, currently a Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Mathematics at the University of Tennessee.^[2][3][4] Initially trained as a physicist, he established a successful career in theoretical evolutionary biology before shifting his focus to modeling human social and cultural evolution. He uses mathematical and computational models to study complex biological and social processes. He has made contributions to the study of speciation, sexual selection, fitness landscapes, sexual conflict, social complexity, evolutionary game theory, social norms, homosexuality, social norms, and cultural evolution. He was the Associate Director for Scientific Activities at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis during the life of the NSF award (2008-2021) and the Director of the Center for the Dynamics of Social Complexity (DySoC) (2018-2022). In 2017, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[5]

His book, Fitness Landscapes and the Origin of Species (2004), synthesizes how mathematical modeling contributes to understanding the processes underlying the emergence of new species.

Gavrilets has contributed to the book Evolution: The Extended Synthesis (Edited by Massimo Pigliucci and Gerd B. Müller, 2010).^[6]