Lynn Margulis

In 1957, Margulis got married to Carl Sagan, the famous astronomer. Sagan was a graduate student in the department of Physics in ‘University of Chicago’. The couple had two sons; Dorian Sagan who became a famous science writer, and Jeremy Sagan who is better known as the founder of ‘Sagan Technology’.

In 1964, the couple got divorced, and Margulis got married to Thomas N. Margulis who was a crystallographer. From her second marriage, Margulis had a son Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, who became a lawyer by profession and Jennifer who is known as a writer and teacher.

Her second marriage ended in 1980; according to the pioneering botanist, it was not possible to balance the duties of a wife and a scientist, and one has to let go of one thing, to concentrate on the other.

Lynn Margulis was born on March 5th, 1938, in Chicago. She was the eldest of all the daughters born to Morris and Leona Wise Alexander. Her father was a lawyer and also owned a paint manufacturing company. Her mother was known to operate a travel agency.

In 1952, she was admitted to ‘Hyde Park Academy High School’, but she was never one of the bright students. At the age of 15, she was admitted to ‘University of Chicago Laboratory Schools’.

In 1957, at the age of 19, she got a BA degree in Liberal Arts. Margulis then joined ‘University of Wisconsin’ and studied biology under Walter Plaut, her supervisor, and Hans Ris.

In 1960 she graduated with a MS degree in zoology and genetics following which she started research under Max Alfert in ‘University of California’.

In 1964, even before completing her dissertation she was offered a research assistantship and a position of lecturer in ‘Brandeis University’.

After obtaining her PhD degree from the ‘University of Berkeley’ in 1965, she moved to ‘Boston University’ the following year, where she taught biology for 22 years.

In 1966, Margulis wrote ‘On the Origin of Mitsoing Cells’, a paper which got rejected fifteen times before it found place in ‘Journal of Theoretical Biology’. This paper is considered as a landmark revelation in endosymbiotic theory.

Margulis initially started as an Adjunct Assistant Professor, but got the position of Assistant Professor in 1967.

Her endosymbiotic stheory completely revolutionized the concept of how life came on Earth. This was explained in details in the book Origin of Eukaryotic Cell which was published in 1970.

Margulis who called herself a follower of ‘neo-Darwinism’, focused on the idea of symbiosis, the idea of living arrangement of two very different organisms either in beneficial or unfavourable position. Margulis’ endosymbiotic theory altered the origin of cells and explained that cells with nuclei or eukaryotic cells have evolved from the symbiotic merge of non-nucleated bacteria, which happened to live independently.