James Ephraim Lovelock (born July 26, 1919) is an independent scientist, author, researcher and environmentalist who lives in Cornwall, in the west of England. He is most famous for proposing and popularizing the Gaia hypothesis, in which he postulates that the Earth functions as a kind of superorganism (term coined by Lynn Margulis).

Life History

Lovelock was born in Letchworth Garden City. He studied chemistry at Manchester University before taking up a Medical Research Council post at the Institute for Medical Research in London.

In 1948 he received a Ph.D in medicine at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Within the United States he has taught at Yale, Baylor University College of Medicine, and Harvard University.

Professional Career

A lifelong inventor, some of his inventions were adopted by NASA in their program of planetary exploration. It was while working for NASA that Lovelock developed the Gaia Hypothesis.

Lovelock is currently president of the Marine Biological Association, was elected a FRS in 1974, and in 1990 was awarded the first Amsterdam Prize for the Environment by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. An independent scientist, inventor, and author, Lovelock works out of a barn-turned-laboratory in Cornwall.

Books

• Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (1979, 3rd ed. 2000) Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192862189
• Ages of Gaia (1988, revised ed. 1995) Oxford University Press ISBN 0393312399
• Gaia: The Practical Science of Planetary Medicine Gaia Books (1991 ed.) Oxford University Press (2001 ed.) ISBN 0195216741
• Homage to Gaia: The Life of an Independent Scientist Oxford University Press (2000) ISBN 0198604297 (Lovelock's autobiography).