Gould's research focused on invertebrate paleontology, specifically the growth and form of land snails. His work brought him frequent honors, including the Schuchert Award for excellence in paleontological research for a paleontologist under age 40 in 1975.
Born Sept. 10, 1941, in New York City, Gould received his A.B. from Antioch College in geology in 1963. He received a doctorate from Columbia University in 1967.
He became assistant professor of geology and assistant curator of invertebrate paleontology at Harvard in 1967. He was promoted to associate professor of geology and associate curator of invertebrate paleontology in 1971 and to professor of geology and curator of invertebrate paleontology in 1973. In 1982, he was named the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology.
Gould received many honors over the years, including more than 40 honorary degrees from institutions as varied as Rutgers University, the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and his alma mater, Antioch College.
Among his other accolades, he was named "Scientist of the Year" by Discover Magazine in 1981, received the Medal of Excellence from Columbia University in 1983, the Silver Medal from the Zoological Society of London in 1984, and the Gold Medal for Service to Zoology from the Linnean Society of London in 1992. He received recognition from the national associations of both biology and geology teachers, and, in 1997, the Distinguished Scientist Award from the University of California, Los Angeles, from the Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life.
Gould's writing has made his a household name. He published many volumes of books as well as hundreds of essays in national newspapers and magazines on any of a host of scientific topics. He received the National Book Award in 1981 for "The Panda's Thumb," the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1982 for "The Mismeasure of Man," the Phi Beta Kappa Book Award in Science for both "Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes" in 1983, and "Wonderful Life" in 1990. He received the Rhone-Poulenc Prize in 1991 for "Wonderful Life" and the Golden Trilobite Award for excellence in paleontological writing from The Paleontological Society.
"Gould is a master at prodding beliefs and provoking doubts. The joy is that you start to look at the world a little differently," wrote The Denver Post about his book "The Lying Stones of Marrakesh" (2001).
The Boston Globe, reviewing the same, wrote, "Like movement of a Baroque concerto, his essays swell in elaborate arcs and curlicues before coming to rest at the last moment in a ringing reunion of themes."
Gould's most recent book, "The Structure of Evolutionary Theory" (2002), is a 1,433-page opus that took him more than 20 years to complete. At a reading and book signing at the Harvard Museum of Natural History shortly after the book's publication, Gould said that when he was diagnosed with cancer in 1982 he believed he had "almost zero chance of finishing it."
Gould is survived by his second wife, Rhonda Roland Shearer, and by two children from his first marriage, Jesse and Ethan.
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