Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL (born 26 March 1941) is an English ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008.
Dawkins came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which popularised the gene-centred view of evolution and introduced the termmeme. In 1982, he introduced into evolutionary biology the influential concept that the phenotypic effects of a gene are not necessarily limited to an organism's body, but can stretch far into the environment, including the bodies of other organisms; this concept is presented in his book The Extended Phenotype.
Dawkins came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which popularised the gene-centred view of evolution and introduced the termmeme. In 1982, he introduced into evolutionary biology the influential concept that the phenotypic effects of a gene are not necessarily limited to an organism's body, but can stretch far into the environment, including the bodies of other organisms; this concept is presented in his book The Extended Phenotype.
Dawkins' book The Selfish Gene is a fascinating glimpse at evolutionary biology from the standpoint of a gene. In it, he maps out the gene's desire to be passed on and thrive in the world. (Although, as he repeatedly points out, genes are not autonomous nor are they self aware in any sense of the phrase.) He also coins the term meme, which is a relevant piece of cultural information that might be passed along in much the same way genes are. The term has been used ever since and has even spawned its own field of study known as memetics.