尼尔·苏宾

尼尔·舒宾（英语：Neil Shubin，1960年12月22日—）是一位美国古生物学家和演化生物学家，芝加哥大学教授，菲尔德自然史博物馆馆长，知名于发现了罗丝提塔利克鱼（学名Tiktaalik roseae）。

代表作品

《我们的身体里有一条鱼》（Your Inner Fish，2008年ISBN 978-0-375-42447-2）

《身体中的宇宙：探索宇宙、地球与人类进化的共同历史》（The Universe Within: The Deep History of the Human Body，2013年ISBN 978-0-307-37843-9）

《解码40亿年生命史 : 从化石到DNA》（Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA，2020年ISBN 9781101871331）

《地球的尽头：在极地寻找生命、宇宙和人类未来的答案》（Ends of the Earth: Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and our Future，2025年ISBN 9780593186527）

Neil Shubin (born December 22, 1960) is an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science writer. He is the Robert R. Bensley Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, Associate Dean of Organismal Biology and Anatomy and Professor on the Committee of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago along with being the Provost of the Field Museum of Natural History. He is best known for his co-discovery of Tiktaalik roseae with Ted Daeschler and Farish Jenkins.

On February 4, 2026, it was announced that Shubin has been elected to be the next president of the National Academy of Sciences with his term beginning July 1, 2026.

Biography

Born to the author Seymour Shubin and his wife Gloria and raised in Overbrook Hills section of Lower Merion Township (contiguous to City of Philadelphia) and a graduate of Lower Merion High School, Shubin earned a A.B. from Columbia University in 1982 and a Ph.D. in organismic and evolutionary biology from Harvard University in 1987. He also studied at the University of California, Berkeley.

Shubin was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2011.

Shubin was ABC News' "Person of the Week" in April 2006 when Tiktaalik was unveiled, and made appearances on The Colbert Report January 14, 2008 and January 9, 2013.

The Communication Awards of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine awarded a $20,000 prize for excellence in communicating science to the general public to Michael Rosenfeld, David Dugan, and Neil Shubin in Film/Radio/TV on October 14, 2015, for Your Inner Fish. The awards are given to individuals in four categories: books, film/radio/TV, magazine/newspaper and online, and are supported by the W. M. Keck Foundation. Neil Shubin hosted Your Inner Fish on PBS. The show was produced by Windfall Films and Tangled Bank Studios, a production company for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute that makes materials available for science classroom education.

He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2017. He also served as interim co-director of the Marine Biological Laboratory in 2017.

In 2026, Shubin was elected president of the National Academy of Sciences, succeeding Marcia McNutt when her final term ends on June 30, 2026.

Below is a list of taxa that Shubin has contributed to naming:

Awards and honors

In 2009, Shubin was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2011 to the National Academy of Sciences. In 2016, Shubin was awarded the Addison Emery Verrill Medal from the Yale Peabody Museum for his research into limb evolution. In 2019, Shubin was named the recipient of the Roy Chapman Andrews Society Distinguished Explorer Award. Shubin was chosen primarily because of his discoveries to understand the origin of organs in the human body and the connectiveness of all life. In 2024, Shubin was awarded the Viktor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Prize from the Society for Developmental Biology, and in 2026 was awarded the Society for the Study of Evolution Stephen Jay Gould Prize for his research achievements and for advancing public understanding of evolution.

Publications

Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body. New York: Pantheon Books, 2008. ISBN 978-0-375-42447-2

The Universe Within: Discovering the Common History of Rocks, Planets, and People. Pantheon Books, New York City 2013. ISBN 978-0-307-37843-9

Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA. New York: Pantheon Books, 2020. ISBN 9781101871331

Ends of the Earth: Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and Our Future. New York: Dutton, 2025. ISBN 9780593186527