William deJong-Lambert is a Historian of Science whose research focuses on evolution and heredity. In 2009 and 2012 he organized the first-ever workshops devoted to the history of Lysenkoism, and has since gone on to publish widely on the evolutionary synthesis of genetics and natural selection. His current research focuses on the geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky and the history of Brazilian genetics. Fellowship Leave (Sabbatical) Spring 2025
Education:
Ph.D. in History and Comparative Education, Columbia University Certificate in East Central European Studies, Harriman Institute, Columbia University M.A. in English Literature, Claremont Graduate University B.F.A. in Creative Writing, Emerson College
Recent Courses Taught: HIS 10 History of the Modern World FYS First Year Seminar
Research Interests: History of genetics in Brazil, Geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky
Honors, Awards, and Affiliations:
Fulbright Scholars Award, 2024-2025
Fulbright Specialist Award, 2019
Rockefeller Archive Center Research Stipend, spring 2017
Franklin Research Grant, American Philosophical Society, spring 2015
National Science Foundation Science, Technology and Society award, spring 2012
Franklin Research Grant, American Philosophical Society, spring 2009
Everett Helm Visiting Fellowship, Indiana University, fall 2008
Harriman Institute Junior Fellowship, academic year 2004-05
Fulbright-Hays Dissertation Research Grant, academic year 2003-04
Library Resident Research Fellowship, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA, academic year 2002-03
U.S. Department of Education Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowship, academic years 2000-01 and 2001-02
Select Publications:
"The best books on the history of modern science." https://shepherd.com/best-books/the-history-of-modern-science
The Cold War Politics of Genetic Research: An Introduction to the Lysenko Affair. The Netherlands: Springer, 2012.
“‘…this Brazilian venture…’: A Brief Biography of Theodosius Dobzhansky Before His Arrival in Brazil,” Filosofia e História da Biologia 15/2 (2020): 257-288.
“The Difference Between No. 1 1928 and No. 1 1930 is Great Indeed: Theodosius Dobzhansky's Self-Imposed Exile from Soviet Russia,” History of Communism in Europe. Edited by the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile. 9/2018 (2020): 15-39.
“What Was so Upsetting about the Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics? W.L. Tower, C.H. Waddington and Evolution of the Evolutionary Synthesis,” Studies in the History of Biology 10/1 (2018): 9-22.
“J.B.S. Haldane and Лысенковщина (Lysenkovschina),” Journal of Genetics 96/5 (2017): 837-844.
deJong-Lambert, William and Nikolai Krementsov, eds. The Lysenko Controversy as a Global Phenomenon, 2 volumes (New York, London: Palgrave Macmillan: 2017).
“Hermann J. Muller, Theodosius Dobzhansky, Leslie Clarence Dunn, and the Reaction to Lysenkoism in the United States,” Journal of Cold War Studies 15/1 (2013): 78-118.
deJong-Lambert, William and Nikolai Krementsov, eds. The International Response to the Lysenko Affair. The Journal of the History of Biology. The Netherlands: Springer 45/3 (2012).
“Lysenkoism in Poland,” The Journal of the History of Biology 45/3 (2012): 499-524.
“Biological Utopias East and West: Trofim D. Lysenko and His Critics.” Divided Dreamworlds – The Cultural Cold War in East and West. ed. Joes Segal. Amsterdam, Holland: Amsterdam University Press, 2012. 33-52.