Geerat J. Vermeij

Geerat J. Vermeij (born September 28, 1946) is a Dutch-born paleoecologist and evolutionary biologist in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California, Davis. He studies marine molluscs, both as fossils and as living creatures, as well as influence creatures have on each other's evolutionary fates, alongside having worked on plants, crabs, extinction, biological invasions, and biogeography. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1992, and in 2000, was awarded the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal from the National Academy of Sciences. He was also a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences in 1992 and was awarded the Fellows Medal from the California Academy of Sciences in 2017. He moved from the Netherlands to Nutley, New Jersey at age 10, and graduated from Nutley High School in 1965. Vermeij had a school teacher who once brought shells from Florida. There were great differences in the characteristics of those shells and the ones he experienced in the Netherlands, which sparked his interest.

He has a wife, Edith Zipser, and a daughter, Hermine. His vision loss did not slow him down. He travelled the world with research assistants to retrieve shells. His interests in comparing shell traits came his senior year at Princeton University when he took a trip to both Costa Rica and Hawaii. There was a sharp contrast in the molluscs and it intrigued him. Vermeij proceeded to graduate from Princeton University in 1968 and received his Ph.D. in biology and geology from Yale University in 1971.

Career Vermeij studies coevolutionary relationships between predator and prey organisms, with a focus on marine mollusks.

In lieu of sight, Vermeij uses his sense of touch to better understand mollusk morphology. He has also published Evolution and Escalation: An Ecological History of Life, A Natural History of Shells, Privileged Hands: A Scientific Life, His forthcoming book is titled The Evolution of Power.

In February 2023, Distinguished Professor Emeritus Geerat Vermeij in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, UC Davis, delivered the New Emeriti Distinguished Lecture, focusing on The Evolution of Power.

Honors

Awards and memberships 1968: Phi Beta Kappa: Princeton University 1975-1976: Fellowship: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation 1981: Fellow: American Association for the Advancement of Science 1983: Award for Excellence in Research, Division of Agriculture and Life Science, University of Maryland 1992: Fellow: California Academy of Sciences 2004: Faculty Research Lectureship, UC Davis 2022: Election to the National Academy of Sciences

Eponymy The gastropod genus Vermeijius has been named in his honor.