John Maynard Smith

John Maynard Smith was one of the most original thinkers in evolutionary biology of the post neo-Darwinian synthesis age. He was able to define new problems with clarity and by doing so open up new research directions. He did this in a number of areas including game theory and evolution, the evolution of sex, animal behavior, evolutionary transitions and molecular evolution. Although he is best known for his research and his ideas, he was a great expositor and wrote many books, including introductory texts in the areas of evolution and genetics, ecology and mathematical modeling, as well as advanced expositions of research problems.