What is Stephen Jay Gould?
{{Infobox scientist | name = Stephen Jay Gould | image = | caption = on the cover of Newsweek | birth_date = September 10, 1941 | birth_place = [[Bayside]], [[Queens, New York]] | death_date = {{death date and age|mf=yes|2002|5|20|1941|9|10}} | death_place = [[Manhattan]], New York City | nationality = American | fields = [[Paleontology]], [[Evolutionary biology]], [[History of Science]] | alma_mater = [[Antioch College]], [[Columbia University]] | work_institutions = [[Harvard University]],<br/>[[American Museum of Natural History]],<br/>[[New York University]] | doctoral_advisor = | known_for= [[Punctuated equilibrium]] | societies = | prizes = [[Linnean Society of London]]'s [[Darwin-Wallace Medal]] (2008)<br /> [[Paleontological Society Medal]] (2002) | signature = SJG_Signature.png }} '''Stephen Jay Gould''' (September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an [[United States|American]] [[Paleontology|paleontologist]], [[Evolution|evolutionary biologist]], [[Taxonomy|taxonomist]], and [[History of science|historian of science]]. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of [[popular science]] of his generation.<ref name=Shermer2002>{{Citation | last1 = Shermer | first1 = Michael | year = 2002 | title = This View of Science | url = http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/shermer_sjgould.pdf | journal = Social Studies of Science | volume = 32 | issue = 4 | pages = 489–525 | postscript = . | accessdate = 2011-06-06 | archive-date = 2018-09-20 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180920184430/http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/shermer_sjgould.pdf | url-status = dead }}</ref> Gould spent most of his career teaching at [[Harvard University]] and working at the [[American Museum of Natural History]] in New York. In the latter years of his life, Gould also taught biology and evolution at [[New York University]] near his home in [[SoHo]]. Gould's greatest contribution to science was the theory of [[punctuated equilibrium]], which he developed with [[Niles Eldredge]] in 1972.<ref name=