Ernst Mayr, a Harvard professor of zoology emeritus and a prolific writer on topics of evolution and the philosophy of biology, is the 1994 winner of the International Prize for Biology.

Awarded by Japan, the prize consists of ten million yen, or about $99,000, and a medal. Both will be presented on November 28 at a ceremony in Tokyo, attended by Emperor and Empress Akihito.

Also called the Japan Prize, the award is one of the most prestigious in science. Nobel prizes are not given in biology, but the Japan prize and the Balzan Prize, awarded by a Swiss-Italian foundation, are considered equivalents. Mayr has won both.

"I have been active in biology for 69 years," Mayr said. "This is a very pleasant surprise and a nice reward for so many years of hard work."

Mayr says he will give the money away, just as he did the $130,000 he received in 1983 with the Balzan Prize.

"I established a fellowship program at the [Harvard] Museum of Comparative Zoology with that money," he explained. "I'll give some of the Japan Prize to a home for crippled children, I haven't decided what I'll do with the rest of it."

Stephen Jay Gould, professor of geology at Harvard, and a renowned authority on evolution, has called Mayr "the greatest living evolutionary biologist."

Mayr retired in 1975 after 22 years as a professor and nine as the director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology.