Sonia E. Sultan is Professor of Biology and Professor of Environmental Studies at Wesleyan University, where her research group studies plant ecological development. She has long been a major contributor to the empirical and conceptual literatures on individual plasticity and its relation to ecological breadth and adaptive evolution. Sultan studied History and Philosophy of Science at Princeton University, followed by graduate work in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. She was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of California (Davis) Center for Population Biology, and a Fellow of the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin).
This book brings together considerable literature on the frontiers of ecological research... Thought-provoking and rich in ideas, it is particularly relevant for advanced undergraduate courses and graduate students in biology, ecology and environmental science. A. M. Mannion, The Biologist Organism and Environment is impressively synthetic, integrating ecology, evolution and developmental biology in as compelling a manner as any published monograph. Its dynamic systems approach slips smoothly across genetic, epigenetic, physiological, behavioural and community ecological levels, each explained in accessible prose. It is empirically strong, replete with taxonomically diverse examples that compel the reader to accept the argument. Sultan is to be congratulated on a landmark volume, crammed with insights and provocative findings that no contemporary biologist can afford to ignore. Kevin Laland, Trends in Ecology and Evolution This is a wonderful data-led exploration of how organisms relate to their environments and how environments relate to their organisms. Sultan is pointing towards a future extended synthesis in the biological sciences, and perhaps beyond, which integrates evolution, development and ecology. Dr John Odling-Smee, University of Oxford Sonia Sultan has written a masterful book about evolution and development, with a good dose of ecology included. All of the important major topics are covered in a thoughtful and well referenced manner, making this book ideal for graduate students getting into the subject and senior workers wanting a thorough overview. Professor Marc Mangel, UC Santa Cruz This book makes a major contribution by bringing the new perspectives in evolutionary biology to general attention. The book is written in a clear, straightforward style, using interesting and diverse empirical examples to outline changing theoretical approaches. Professor Deborah M. Gordon, Stanford University