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De Jong Lambert, William

718-289-5476
william.dejong-lambert@bcc.cuny.edu
COLSTON HALL 307
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.
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:
  • Eugene Garfield Fellowship, The American Philosophical Society, 2024-2025
    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 Fly Room: The Story of the Scientists Who Discovered Genetics and Reinvented Evolution. University of Pennsylvania Press. Publication forthcoming September 2026. 
  • "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.

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