Tulane professor inducted into Linnean Society

Tulane University biology professor David Heins has been inducted as a fellow of the Linnean Society of London, the world’s oldest active biological society and a leading forum for debate and discussion of natural history.

Heins’ research focuses on the life history and evolutionary ecology of fishes and host-parasite relationships of fishes in North America.

Fellows are recommended to the society by other fellows, and a ballot is held four times a year. Heins was inducted in May at the society’s first-ever U.S. meeting at Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum.

“Darwin’s later publication ‘On the Origin of Species’ changed the world.”

David Heins

The Linnean Society is an international society whose members are some of the world’s most prominent biologists and naturalists. One of its claims to fame dates back to 1858 when a paper co-authored by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace outlining the theory of evolution by natural selection was read before the society.

“Darwin’s later publication On the Origin of Species changed the world,” said Heins, chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Tulane. “Being a part of the society is a real honor to me.”

The Linnean Society was founded in 1788. Its name is taken from the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus, whose botanical, zoological and library collections have been kept at the society since 1829. The group promotes the study of all aspects of the biological sciences, with particular emphasis on evolution, taxonomy, biodiversity and sustainability.