George Oster

George Oster (April 20, 1940 – April 15, 2018)[1] was an American mathematical biologist, and Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at University of California, Berkeley.[2][3][4] He made seminal contributions to several varied fields including chaos theory, population dynamics, membrane dynamics and molecular motors.[5] He was a 1984 MacArthur Fellow.

Early career

He graduated from Columbia University, with a Ph.D., in Nuclear Engineering in 1967.[6] He was appointed as an assistant professor in at UC Berkeley in 1970.[6] In the early 1970s Oster collaborated with Aharon Katzir-Katchalsky on statistical mechanics.[6]

Oster's work with E. O. Wilson on populations dynamics of social animals, particularly ants, is considered pioneering work in evolution in social insects.[6] Oster was one of the first theoretical biologists to understand that a complex interplay between mechanical and chemical forces was at the root of most biological phenomena.[6]

Later career

He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004.[7] Oster was a Guggenheim Fellow, and a member of the science board of the Santa Fe Institute.[6]

Awards

References


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