Jeremy England
Born1982
Boston, Massachusetts
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
Known forDissipation-driven adaptation hypothesis of abiogenesis
Scientific career
FieldsBiophysics
InstitutionsMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
GlaxoSmithKline
Bar-Ilan University
ThesisTheory and Simulation of Explicit Solvent Effects on Protein Folding in Vitro and in Vivo (2009)
Doctoral advisorVijay S. Pande[2]
Websitewww.englandlab.com

Jeremy England is an American physicist who uses statistical physics arguments to explain the spontaneous emergence of life, and consequently, the modern synthesis of evolution.[3][4][5] England terms this process dissipation-driven adaptation.[6]

Early life

England was born in Boston, Massachusetts[7] and raised in a college town in New Hampshire.[8] His mother was the daughter of Polish Jewish Holocaust survivors, while his father was a non-observant Lutheran. He was raised Jewish but did not seriously study Judaism and the Torah until he attended graduate school at Oxford University.[8] He now considers himself an Orthodox Jew[8] who has been inspired by Zionist ideology.[9] He has previously written on The Stanford Review contesting Palestinians' right to the land occupied by Israel since 1948, wishing them "well in finding homes outside the Land of Israel".[10]

England earned a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Harvard in 2003. After being awarded a Rhodes Scholarship,[11] he studied at St. John's College, Oxford, from 2003 until 2005. He earned his Ph.D. in physics at Stanford in 2009 under Vijay S. Pande,[12][1] where he was supported by a Hertz Fellowship.[13] In 2011, he joined MIT as an assistant professor of physics;[7] subsequently, he was associate professor of physics from 2017 until 2019.[12][14] In 2019, he left MIT to join GlaxoSmithKline as a senior director in artificial intelligence and machine learning;[15] he was promoted to vice president in 2023.[12][14] He was a principal research scientist at Georgia Tech from 2020 until 2023, when he joined Bar-Ilan University as a visiting professor of physics.[14]

Theoretical work

England has developed a hypothesis of the physics of the origins of life, based on a mechanism which he calls dissipation-driven adaptation.[3][5][6] The hypothesis holds that random groups of molecules can self-organize to more reliably absorb and dissipate heat from the environment, and that such self-organizing systems are an inherent part of the physical world.[8]

Pulitzer Prize–winning science historian Edward J. Larson said that if England can demonstrate his hypothesis to be true, "he could be the next Darwin."[8]

A fictionalized version of England and his theory are featured in the novel Origin by Dan Brown. England, who is an Orthodox Jew and ordained rabbi,[16] has written that he strongly rejects Brown's depiction of him as being a scientist who is unconcerned with spiritual matters.[17]

Awards

England was selected as a Rhodes Scholar and Hertz fellow in 2003.[11][13] In 2012, he was featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 for his scientific achievements.[13][18] In 2021, he was given the Irwin Oppenheim Award by the American Physical Society alongside Sumantra Sarkar.[19]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Curriculum Vitae- Jeremy L. England (PDF), EnglandLab.com, retrieved December 17, 2014
  2. ↑ England, Jeremy (2009). Theory and Simulation of Explicit Solvent Effects on Protein Folding in Vitro and in Vivo (PhD thesis). ISBN 978-1243607553.
  3. 1 2 Wolchover, Natalie (Jan 28, 2014). "A New Physics Theory of Life". Scientific American. Retrieved Dec 11, 2014.
  4. ↑ Tafarella, Santi (Jan 28, 2014). "Dissipation-Driven Adaptive Organization: Is Jeremy England The Next Charles Darwin?". Prometheus Unbound. Retrieved Dec 11, 2014.
  5. 1 2 Jones, Orion (Dec 9, 2014). "MIT Physicist Proposes New "Meaning of Life"". Big Think. Retrieved Dec 11, 2014.
  6. 1 2 Perunov, Nikolai; Marsland, Robert; England, Jeremy (2016). "Statistical Physics of Adaptation". Physical Review X. 6 (2): 021036. arXiv:1412.1875. Bibcode:2016PhRvX...6b1036P. doi:10.1103/PhysRevX.6.021036. S2CID 15928632.
  7. 1 2 Faculty biography of Jeremy England Archived 2019-04-29 at the Wayback Machine, MIT Dept. of Physics, accessed Jan. 9, 2015.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Meet the Orthodox Jewish physicist rethinking the origins of life" by Simona Weinglass, The Times of Israel, October 29, 2015.
  9. ↑ Bashevkin, David (Nov 16, 2020). "WHAT DOES A SCIENTIST SEE IN THE TORAH?". 18Forty. Retrieved Nov 1, 2023.
  10. ↑ England, Jeremy (Jun 11, 2008). "Is This Land Your Land?". Medium. Retrieved Nov 1, 2023.
  11. 1 2 Ken Gewertz (2002-12-12). "Five Harvard students selected as 2003 Rhodes Scholars".
  12. 1 2 3 England, Jeremy. "Curriculum Vitae". englandlab. Archived from the original on April 15, 2017. Retrieved April 14, 2017.
  13. 1 2 3 "Jeremy England - Fanny and John Hertz Foundation". Hertz Foundation. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
  14. 1 2 3 England, Jeremy. "Jeremy England | LinkedIn". LinkedIn. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  15. ↑ "GlaxoSmithKline recruits a new coach and top player for their AI/ML team out of Genentech and MIT". San Francisco Biotechnology Network News. July 11, 2019. Archived from the original on July 28, 2019. Retrieved July 28, 2019.
  16. ↑ "Judaism, Physics and Biology on the Origins of Life: A Conversation with Dr. Jeremy England". Sinai and Synapses. 16 December 2020. Retrieved 2022-10-17.
  17. ↑ England, Jeremy (2017-10-12). "Dan Brown Can't Cite Me to Disprove God". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2022-10-17.
  18. ↑ "Jeremy England". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-01-29.[Forbes]
  19. ↑ "Irwin Oppenheim Award". American Physical Society. Retrieved 2021-01-28.

^ Forbes.com seems to have lost most of the content on his profile and lists a broken link to the 2012 30-under-30 in Science. The Hertz Foundation profile mentions the 2018 Forbes 30-under-30. However, neither the 2012 nor the 2018 official listing pages on Forbes.com list England.

Further reading

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