Geoff Parker

{{short description|Zoologist, evolutionary biologist}} {{Other people|Geoffrey Parker}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox scientist | honorific_prefix = | name =  | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS|size=100%}} | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image = Geoff A Parker 2018.jpg | image_size = | image_upright = | landscape =  | alt = | caption = Parker in 2018 | birth_name = Geoffrey Alan Parker | birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1944|5|24}} | birth_place = | death_date =  | death_place = | death_cause =  | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | other_names = | siglum = | pronounce = | citizenship = British | nationality =  | fields = {{ublist|[[Behavioral ecology|Behavioural ecology]]|[[Evolutionary biology]]}} | workplaces = [[University of Liverpool]] | patrons = | education = | alma_mater = [[University of Bristol]] (BSc, PhD} | thesis_title = The reproductive behaviour and the nature of sexual selection in [[Scathophaga stercoraria]] L. (the yellow dung fly) | thesis_url =  | thesis_year = 1969 | doctoral_advisor = [[H.E. Hinton]] | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = [[Sperm competition]]<br /> [[Evolutionary game theory]] | awards = {{ublist|[[ASAB Medal|ASAB Medal (2002)]]| [[Frink Medal|Frink Medal (2005)]]| [[Darwin Medal|Darwin Medal (2008)]]}} | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | spouse =  | partner =  | children = | parents = | father = | mother = | relatives = | signature =  | signature_type =  | signature_alt = | website = <ref name="GAP web" /> | footnotes = }}

Professor '''Geoffrey Alan Parker''' [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]] (born 24 May 1944) is an English evolutionary biologist, emeritus [[professor]] of [[biology]] at the [[University of Liverpool]].<ref name="GAP web">{{cite web |title=Em Prof Geoff Parker BSc MA(Cantab) PhD FRS |url=https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/people/geoff-parker |website=Our people |publisher=University of Liverpool |access-date=15 September 2025}}</ref> Parker has been called "the professional's professional".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ruse |first1=M |author1-link=Michael Ruse |title=Mystery of Mysteries: is Evolution a Social Construction? |date=1999 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA |isbn=978-0-674-00543-3 |pages=194–213 |chapter=Chapter 10: "Geoff Parker: the professional's professional."}}</ref>

==Education== Parker attended [[Lymm Grammar School]] in [[Lymm]], [[Cheshire]], and gained his [[BSc]] from the [[University of Bristol]] in 1965, from where he also gained a doctorate in 1969 under [[H.E. Hinton]], [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]] (1912–1977). His [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] was on ''The reproductive behaviour and the nature of sexual selection in [[Scathophaga stercoraria|''Scathophaga stercoraria L. (the yellow dung fly)'']]'', and provided a detailed quantitative test of Darwin's theory of sexual selection,<ref>{{cite book |author1=Parker, GA |author1-link=Geoff Parker |editor1-last=Dugatkin |editor1-first=Lee Alan |editor1-link= Lee Dugatkin |title=Model Systems in Behavioral Ecology: Integrating Conceptual, Theoretical, and Empirical Approaches |date=2001 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ |isbn=978-0-691-00653-6 |pages=3–26 |chapter=Chapter 1: Golden flies, sunlit meadows: a tribute to the yellow dungfly}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Simmons |first1=LW |last2=Parker |first2=GA |last3=Hosken |first3=DJ |title=Evolutionary insight from a humble fly: sperm competition and the yellow dungfly |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B |date=2020 |volume=375 |issue=1813 |article-number=20200062 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2020.0062 |pmid=33070730 |pmc=7661454 }}</ref> and an early application of optimality theory in biology.

==Career and research== Parker moved to the [[University of Liverpool]] in 1968, where he became a lecturer in [[zoology]]. In 1978-79, he spent a year as a senior research fellow in the Research Centre<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=King's College Sociobiology Group |title=Current Problems in Sociobiology |date=1982 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |isbn=0-521-28520-8}}</ref> at [[King's College, Cambridge]]. After returning to Liverpool he became a professor in 1989 following his election to the [[Royal Society]]. In 1996 he became the Derby Chair of Zoology at the [[University of Liverpool]], retiring in 2009, but remaining as emeritus professor.

His main research interests have been in [[behavioural ecology]] and [[evolutionary biology]]. He is noted for introducing the concept of [[sperm competition]] and its evolutionary consequences in 1970 in a review on insect mating systems.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Parker|first=Geoff|date=1970|title=Sperm competition and its evolutionary consequences in insects.|journal=Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society|volume=45|issue=4|pages=525–567|doi=10.1111/j.1469-185X.1970.tb01176.x|s2cid=85156929 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-185X.1970.tb01176.x |access-date=15 September 2025|url-access=subscription}}</ref> This work pioneered the development of the field of postcopulatory [[sexual selection]], the study of sexually selected [[Adaptation|adaptations]] arising from [[Competition (biology)|competition]] between the ejaculates of different mates.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Birkhead |first1=TR |author1-link=Tim Birkhead |title=How stupid not to have thought of that: post-copulatory sexual selection |journal=Journal of Zoology |date=2010 |volume=281 |issue=2 |pages=78–93 |doi=10.1111/j.1469-7998.2010.00701.x |url=https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7998.2010.00701.x |access-date=15 September 2025|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Simmons |first1=LW |last2=Weddell |first2=N |title=Fifty years of sperm competition: the structure of a scientific revolution |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B |date=2020 |volume=375 |issue=1813 |article-number=20200060 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2020.0060 |pmid=33070719 |pmc=7661452 }}</ref>

Much of his work from the 1970s onwards has related to the application of [[game theory]] to various biological problems, using the [[evolutionarily stable strategy]] (ESS) approach pioneered by [[John Maynard Smith]] and [[George R. Price|George Price]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Maynard Smith |first1=John |author1-link=John Maynard Smith |last2=Price |first2=George R |author2-link=George R. Price |title=The logic of animal conflict |journal=Nature |date=1973 |volume=246 |issue=5427 |pages=15–18 |doi=10.1038/246015a0 |bibcode=1973Natur.246...15S }}</ref>

With [[Dr Robin Baker|R.R. Baker]] and V.G.F. Smith in 1972, he developed a theory for the evolution of [[anisogamy]] (the evolution of [[Gamete|gametes]] of different sizes) and the two sexes,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Parker |first1=GA |last2=Baker |first2=RR |author2-link=Dr Robin Baker |last3=Smith |first3=VGF |title=The origin and evolution of gamete dimorphism and the male-female phenomenon |journal=Journal of Theoretical Biology |date=1972 |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=529–553 |doi=10.1016/0022-5193(72)90007-0 |pmid=5080448 |bibcode=1972JThBi..36..529P }}</ref> which is now widely accepted.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lehtonen |first1=J |title=The Legacy of Parker, Baker and Smith 1972: Gamete competition, the evolution of anisogamy and model robustness |journal=Cells |date=2021 |volume=10 |issue=3 |page=573 |doi=10.3390/cells10030573 |pmid=33807911 |pmc=7998237 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

In 1974 he proposed that the outcome of animal fighting behaviour is determined by the relative values of the contested resource to each contestant and their assessments of relative [[Resource holding potential|resource holding potentials]] (related to relative fighting abilities).<ref name="Parker 1974">{{cite journal |last1=Parker |first1=GA |title=Assessment strategy and the evolution of fighting behaviour |journal=Journal of Theoretical Biology |date=1974 |volume=47 |issue=1 |pages=223–243 |doi=10.1016/0022-5193(74)90111-8 |pmid=4477626 |bibcode=1974JThBi..47..223P }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Briffa, M |author2=Hardy, ICW |editor1-last=Briffa |editor1-first=M |editor2-last=Hardy |editor2-first=ICW |title=Animal Contests |date=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |isbn=978-0-521-88710-6 |pages=1–4 |chapter=1. Introduction to animal contests}}</ref> This led to the introduction of asymmetries between contestants in early evolutionary game theory.<ref name="Reichert 2013">{{cite journal |last1=Reichert |first1=S |author1-link=Susan Riechert |title=Maynard Smith & Parker's (1976) rule book for animal contests |journal=Animal Behaviour |date=2013 |volume=86 |pages=3–9 |doi=10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.04.013 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003347213001930 |access-date=15 September 2025|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="gametheory 50">{{cite journal |last1=Leimar |first1=O |last2=McNamara |first2=JM |author2-link=John McNamara (mathematical biologist) |title=Game theory in biology: 50 years and onwards |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B |date=2023 |volume=378 |issue=1876 |page=2021059 |article-number=20210509 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2021.0509 |pmid=36934762 |pmc=10024991 }}</ref> Parker also made the first theoretical analysis of [[sexual conflict]] in evolution in 1979.<ref name="Parker 1979">{{cite book |author1=Parker, GA |author1-link=Geoff Parker |editor1-last=Blum |editor1-first=MS |editor2-last=Blum |editor2-first=NA |title=Sexual Selection and Reproductive Competition in Insects |date=1979 |publisher=Academic Press |location=New York, NY |pages=123–166 |chapter=Sexual selection and sexual conflict |isbn=978-0-12-108750-0}}</ref>

Up to the early 1970s, most [[ethology|ethologists]] and [[ecology|ecologists]] had interpreted [[Adaptation|adaptations]] in terms of "survival value to the species" ([[group selection]]).<ref>{{cite book |author1=Parker, GA |author1-link=Geoff Parker |editor1-last=Lucas |editor1-first=JR |editor2-last=Simmons |editor2-first=LW |title=Essays on Animal Behavior: Celebrating 50 Years of Animal Behavior |date=2005 |publisher=Elsevier |location=Burlington, MA |pages=23–56 |chapter=Behavioural ecology: natural history as science |isbn=978-0-12-369499-7}}</ref> However, the [[paradigm shift]] of the [[gene-centric view of evolution]] (popularised by [[Richard Dawkins]] in ''[[The Selfish Gene]]'') shortly afterwards overturned this idea: mainstream views in behavioural ecology and sociobiology saw [[natural selection]] restored to Darwinian principles in terms of survival value to the individual (and [[kin selection|its kin]]). Parker's work has played a part in this shift, especially in the development of behavioural ecology.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Birkhead, TR |author2=Monaghan, P |author1-link=Tim Birkhead |editor1-last=Westneat |editor1-first=DE |editor2-last=Fox |editor2-first=CW |title=Evolutionary Behavioral Ecology |date=2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, UK |isbn=978-0-19-533192-9 |pages=3–15 |chapter=1. Ingenious ideas: the history of behavioural ecology}}</ref>

==Awards and distinctions== * [[Fellow of the Royal Society]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Professor Geoffrey Parker FRS |url=https://royalsociety.org/people/geoffrey-parker-12040/ |website=Fellow Detail Page |publisher=The Royal Society |access-date=15 September 2025}}</ref> (1989). * Niko [[Tinbergen Lecture]] (Annual Distinguished Lecture of the [[Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour]]) (1995). * [[ASAB Medal]] ([[Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour]] Medal) (2002). * Animal Behavior Society Distinguished Animal Behaviorist Award<ref>{{cite web |title=Distinguished Animal Behaviorist Award |url=https://www.animalbehaviorsociety.org/web/awards-distinguished.php |website=Grants & Awards |publisher=The Animal Behavior Society |access-date=15 September 2025}}</ref> (2003). * [[Frink Medal]] of the [[Zoological Society of London]] (2005). * W. D. Hamilton Lecture (Biennial Distinguished Lecture of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology)<ref>{{cite web |title=Volume 18: Number 1 |url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56e7c4be37013b080105e202/t/578f6d32bebafbdbc795aa29/1469017414839/Vol18%281%29.pdf |website=ISBE Newsletter |publisher=International Society for Behavioral Ecology |access-date=15 September 2025}}</ref> (2006). * Distinguished Zoologist Lecture, Benelux Congress of Zoology<ref>{{cite web |title=Distinguished Zoologist Lectures |url=https://kndv.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Distinguished-Zoologist-Lectures.pdf |website=Distinguished-Zoologist-Lectures |publisher=Benelux Congress of Zoology |access-date=15 September 2025}}</ref> (2007). * [[Darwin Medal]] of the [[Royal Society]] (2008). * Honorary [[Doctor of Science]], [[University of Bristol]]<ref name="bristol">{{cite web | url=https://www.bristol.ac.uk/alumni/our-alumni/honorary-degrees/honorary-graduates/2011/parker.html | title=Professor Geoffrey Parker, FRS | publisher=[[University of Bristol]] | date=15 July 2011 | access-date=16 September 2025}}</ref> (2011). * Honorary Fellow of the [[Royal Entomological Society]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Professor Geoff Parker FRS Hon FRES |url=https://www.royensoc.co.uk/about-us/people/professor-geoff-parker-frs-hon-fres/ |website=About Us: People |publisher=Royal Entomological Society |access-date=15 September 2025}}</ref> (2012). * Honorary [[Doctor of Science]], [[Memorial University of Newfoundland]]<ref>{{cite news |last1=Cook |first1=Mandy |title=Academic celebration: Fall convocation honorary degree recipients announced |url=https://gazette.mun.ca/campus-and-community/academic-celebration-2/ |access-date=15 September 2025 |work=Memorial University Gazette |publisher=Memorial University of Newfoundland |date=12 September 2018}}</ref> (2018).

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Geoff}} [[Category:English zoologists]] [[Category:British evolutionary biologists]] [[Category:Evolutionary game theorists]] [[Category:1944 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Fellows of King's College, Cambridge]] [[Category:Alumni of the University of Bristol]] [[Category:Academics of the University of Liverpool]] [[Category:20th-century British zoologists]] [[Category:People from Lymm]] [[Category:British fellows of the Royal Society]]