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Richard Fortey

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Richard Alan Fortey
OBEFRSFRSL
Fortey in Adelaide, South Australia, 2014
Born(1946-02-15)15 February 1946(age 78)
AwardsFrink Medal(2000)
Fellow of the Royal Society
Michael Faraday Prize(2006)
Linnean Medal(2006)
Scientific career
FieldsPaleontology
InstitutionsUniversity of Cambridge
Natural History Museum
Websitewww.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/staff-directory/palaeontology/cv-5469.html

Richard Alan ForteyOBEFRSFRSL(born 15 February 1946[1]inLondon) is a Britishpalaeontologist,natural historian, writer and television presenter, who served as president of theGeological Society of Londonfor its bicentennial year of 2007.

Early life and education[edit]

Fortey was educated atEaling Grammar School for BoysandKing's College, Cambridge,where he read Natural Sciences specialising in geology.[1]He received a PhD and DSc from theUniversity of Cambridge.

Career[edit]

Fortey has had a long career as a palaeontologist at theNatural History Museumin London;[2]his research interests include above all,trilobites:at the age of 14, he discovered his first trilobite, sparking a passionate interest that later became a career. He has named numerous trilobite species and still continues his research despite having retired from the Museum.

He studies trilobites andgraptolites,especially those from theOrdovicianand their systematics,evolutionand modes of life; he is also involved in research on Ordovicianpalaeogeographyand correlation;arthropodevolution, especially the origin of major groups and the relationships between divergence times, as revealed by molecular evidence and thefossilrecord. His scientific output includes over 250 papers on trilobites, Ordovician stratigraphy and palaeogeography.

He is the author of popular science books on a range of subjects including geology, palaeontology, evolution and natural history. Since 2012, he has also been a television presenter appearing onBBC Fourpresenting natural history programmes; was Collier Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Technology at the Institute of Advanced Studies in theUniversity of Bristol2002 and visiting professor of Palaeobiology at the University of Oxford 1999–2009.

Television[edit]

Fortey has appeared in several of David Attenborough's programmes, including the second episode ofDavid Attenborough'sLost Worlds, Vanished Livesin 1989, as well asFirst Lifein 2010, travelling with the presenter to the Atlas mountains to find and film trilobite fossils. He contributed to the speculativeDiscovery Channeldocumentary seriesThe Future Is Wild.

In 2012, Fortey presented theBBC FourseriesSurvivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures,which took a global look at modern-day species whose ancestors survived massextinction eventsin the Earth's history,[3]while in 2013 he presented theBBC FourprogrammeThe Secret Life of Rock Pools,which aired on 16 April 2013.[4]

In 2014, Fortey presented theBBC Fourthree part seriesFossil Wonderlands: Nature's Hidden Treasures,[5]followed byThe Magic of Mushrooms,in which he showed that fungi had close but still poorly understood inter-relationships with plants and animals including man. In 2016, he presented theBBC FourprogrammeNature’s Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution,a three part series on evolution on islands.[6]

He appeared onBBC Two's "University Challenge– The Professionals "in 2004, as a member of the Palaeontological Association team, who beat theEden Project.

Honours[edit]

Fortey was appointedOfficer of the Order of the British Empire(OBE) in the2023 New Year Honoursfor services to palaeontology and geology.[7]

Books[edit]

  • A Curious Boy,William Collins (2021, ISBN 978-0-00-832396-7)
  • Fossils: The Key to the Past,Natural History Museum (1982, fifth edition 2015)
  • The Hidden Landscape,Jonathan Cape (1993,ISBN0-224-03651-3), Bodley Head (revised edition 2010)
  • Life: An Unauthorised Biography. A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth,HarperCollins(1997,ISBN0-00-638420-X) Folio Society edition (2008)
  • Trilobite!: Eyewitness to Evolution,HarperCollins (2000,ISBN0-00-655138-6)
  • The Earth: An Intimate History,HarperCollins (2004,ISBN0-00-655137-8) Folio Society edition (2011)
  • Dry Store Room no.1,HarperCollins (2008,ISBN978-0-307-27552-3)
  • Survivors: The animals and Plants that Time has Left Behind,HarperCollins (2011), published as Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms (2012) in the US.
  • The Wood for the Trees: The Long View of Nature from a Small Wood,William Collins (2016,ISBN978-0-00-810466-5)

He has also penned humorous titles under two pseudonyms.[8]

  • The Roderick Masters Book of Money Making Schemes, or How to Become Enormously Wealthy with Virtually no Effort,published anonymously Rutledge & Kegan Paul Ltd (1981,ISBN0-7100-0973-9)
  • Bindweed's BestsellerEd. Heather & David Godwin, Jackie & Richard Fortey, Pan Books (1982,ISBN0 330 26933 X)

Awards and honours[edit]

For his academic research he has won theLyell Medalof theGeological Society of London,the Linnean Medal for Zoology of the Linnean Society of London, the Frink Medal of the Zoological Society of London, the R. C. Moore Medal of the SEPM, the T. N. George Medal of theGeological Society of Glasgow;in 1997 he was elected as a fellow of theRoyal Society.

His popular science writing has earned him the Natural World Book of the Year award (1994) forThe Hidden Landscape;theLewis Thomas Prizefor science writing (2003) and is the 2006 holder of the Royal Society'sMichael Faraday Prizefor the public communication of science. In 1998,Life: An Unauthorised Biographywas shortlisted for theRhône-Poulenc Prize,in 2001,Trilobite!: Eyewitness to Evolutionwas shortlisted theSamuel Johnson Prize,the UK's most prestigious non-fiction award and in 2005Earth: An Intimate Historywas shortlisted for the Royal Society's Aventis prize for science books.Life: an Unauthorised Biographywas listed as one of ten Books of the Year byThe New York Times. He has also turned his pen to writing dinosaur poems for children and even a spoof book on theRubik's Cube.

Fortey was elected president of theGeological Society of Londonfor its bicentennial year of 2007 and was recently awarded honorary degrees by theUniversity of St Andrews;theOpen University;theBirmingham UniversityandLeicester University.He has also been president of the Palaeontological Association and Palaeontographical Society; in 2009 was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Literature.[9] Fortey has also served on the councils of the Systematics Association; the Royal Society; the Palaeontographical Society (ex president); the British Mycological Society (vice president), and on the Stratigraphy Committee of the Geological Society of London; has served on the editorial boards of theTerra Nova;thePalaeontographica Italiana;theHistorical Biology;theBiological Proceedings of the Royal Society of Londonand theBiology Letters.

References[edit]

  1. ^ab"Richard Alan FORTEY".Debrett's People of Today.Retrieved29 October2014.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^"Prof Richard Fortey".Natural History Museum.Retrieved26 July2012.
  3. ^"BBC Four – Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures".
  4. ^"BBC Four – the Secret Life of Rockpools".
  5. ^"BBC Four – Fossil Wonderlands: Nature's Hidden Treasures".
  6. ^"BBC Four – Nature's Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution".
  7. ^"No. 63918".The London Gazette(Supplement). 31 December 2022. p. N13.
  8. ^"The Life Scientific, Richard Fortey in conversation with Jim Al-Khalili".BBC Radio 4.Retrieved28 October2014.
  9. ^"Royal Society of Literature All Fellows".Royal Society of Literature. Archived fromthe originalon 5 March 2010.Retrieved8 August2010.

External links[edit]

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