Stephen C. Stearns
Born	December 12, 1946 (1946-12-12) (age 77) Kapaau, Hawaii, United States
Alma mater	Yale University, University of Wisconsin, University of British Columbia
Known for	Life history evolution, evolutionary medicine
Spouse	Beverly Peterson Stearns
Children	Justin K. Stearns, Jason Stearns
Scientific career
Fields	Evolutionary biology, life history theory, evolutionary medicine
Institutions	Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University
Thesis	A comparison of the evolution and expression of life history traits in stable and fluctuating environments: Gambusia affinis in Hawaii (1975)
Doctoral students	Dieter Ebert
Website	stearnslab.yale.edu

Stephen C. Stearns (born December 12, 1946, in Kapaau, Hawaii and raised in Hawi, Hawaii)^[1] is an American biologist, and the Edward P. Bass Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Emeritus at Yale University. He is known for his work in life history theory and evolutionary medicine.^[2]

Education and training

• BA Yale University 1967
• MSc University of Wisconsin, Madison 1971
• PhD University of British Columbia 1975
• Miller Fellow University of California, Berkeley 1978

Investment in Infrastructure

• Helped to found the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB) in 1987.^[3] He later served on its council and as its president.
• Founded the Journal of Evolutionary Biology,^[4] ESEB's main journal,^[3] served as its first managing editor from 1986 to 1991, and later served on its Editorial Board.^[3]
• With Tim Clutton-Brock, founded the Tropical Biology Association in 1991.^[5]
• Founded the online open-access journal Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health in 2013.^[6]

Awards and honors

• 1987: Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
• 1993: European Chair of Biology at the École normale supérieure, Paris.
• 2000: Clarion Award from the Association for Women in Communications for a book he wrote with his wife, Beverly Peterson Stearns, Watching, from the Edge of Extinction.
• 2000: Distinguished Ecologist, University of Michigan.
• 2004: Raymond Pearl Memorial Lecturer, Human Biology Association.
• 2005: Fellow, Konrad Lorenz Institute.
• 2005: Fellow, Rockefeller Bellagio Conference and Study Center.
• 2005: Honorary Member of the Swiss Zoological Society.^[7]
• 2007: Fellow, European Society for Evolutionary Biology.^[8]
• 2011: DeVane Medal for distinction in undergraduate teaching, Yale University Phi Beta Kappa.^[9]
• 2011–2012: Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
• 2015: Honorary Doctorate, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Zurich.^[10]
• 2021: Yale College Harwood F. Byrnes/Richard B. Sewall Teaching Prize

Positions

• 1978–1983: Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Reed College
• 1983–2000: Professor of Zoology, University of Basel.^[11]
• 1986–1991: Managing Editor, Journal of Evolutionary Biology
• 1991–1998: President, Tropical Biology Association.
• 1994–1998: Chair, European Science Foundation Program in Population Biology.
• 1995: Vice president of the Society for the Study of Evolution
• 1995–1996: Dean, Faculty of Science, University of Basel
• 2002–2005: Chair, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University
• 2000–present: Edward P. Bass Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University

Selected publications

Books

• The Evolution of Sex and its Consequences (Birkhaeuser 1987) ISBN 978-3-0348-6273-8
• The Evolution of Life Histories (Oxford University Press 1992) ISBN 978-0-19-857741-6
• Evolution in Health and Disease (Oxford University Press 1999, 2nd Ed with Jacob Koella 2007) ISBN 978-0-19-920746-6^[12]
• Watching, from the Edge of Extinction (first author Beverly Peterson Stearns, Yale University Press 1999) ISBN 978-0-300-07606-6^[13][14]
• Evolution, an Introduction (with Rolf Hoekstra, Oxford University Press 2000, 2nd Ed 2005) ISBN 978-0-19-925563-4^[15]
• Evolutionary Medicine (with Ruslan Medzhitov, Sinauer 2016) ISBN 978-1-60535-260-2

Papers

• Stearns, Stephen C. (1976), "Life-history tactics: A review of the ideas", The Quarterly Review of Biology, 51 (1): 3–47, doi:10.1086/409052, JSTOR 2825234, PMID 778893, S2CID 37813334.
• Stearns, Stephen C. (1977), "The evolution of life history traits: A critique of the theory and a review of the data" (PDF), Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 8: 145–171, doi:10.1146/annurev.es.08.110177.001045, JSTOR 2096724.
• Stearns, Stephen C.; Koella, Jacob C. (1986), "The evolution of phenotypic plasticity in life-history traits: Predictions of reaction norms for age and size at maturity" (PDF), Evolution, 40 (5): 893–913, doi:10.2307/2408752, JSTOR 2408752, PMID 28556219.
• Stearns, Stephen C. (1989), "The evolutionary significance of phenotypic plasticity", BioScience, 39 (7): 436–445, doi:10.2307/1311135, JSTOR 1311135.
• Stearns, S. C. (1989), "Trade-offs in life-history evolution" (PDF), Functional Ecology, 3 (3): 259–268, doi:10.2307/2389364, JSTOR 2389364.