Evelyn Fox Keller

Evelyn Fox Keller grew up in New York City and earned her undergraduate degree in physics from Brandeis University before completing a PhD in theoretical physics at Harvard University in 1963. Her early scientific research centered on mathematical biology, notably the Keller-Segel model of bacterial chemotaxis, which remains a cornerstone of collective cellular behavior modeling.

In the late 1970s, Keller shifted her intellectual focus toward the history and philosophy of science. Her 1983 biography of geneticist Barbara McClintock, A Feeling for the Organism, and her 1985 landmark philosophical work, Reflections on Gender and Science, critically examined how patriarchal metaphors shaped concepts of scientific objectivity and mastery over nature. A longtime professor at MIT, Keller's incisive analyses exposed the linguistic framing of genetics and developmental biology, making her one of the most influential feminist scholars in the history of science.