He then moved to the American Museum of Natural History in New York as a bird specialist, where he worked for two years to attain the permanent position of assistant curator.

Mayr says one of his responsibilities was organizing Lord Rothschild's collection of 280,000 bird skins, which he calls "the best collection ever."

"The skins came in 120 big cases, and it was my job to organize them in three floors of the Museum," Mayr says. "I only made one big goof where I didn't leave enough room in the owls. The eagle owls were much bigger than I thought they would be."

Mayr's early work peaked with the publication of his 1942 book Systematics and the Origin of the Species, a cornerstone of modern evolutionary theory and the new systematics.

After 22 years at the American Museum, Mayr came to Harvard as the Agassiz professor of zoology in 1953, where he taught courses on science and social issues with Edsall.

Mayr served as director of Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) from 1961 to 1970. In 1975, he was given emeritus status.

"I have spent the last 25 years working on the history of ideas in biology and the philosophy of biology," Mayr says.

Earlier this year, the MCZ dedicated a library to him recognizing his achievements.

Edsall says Mayr was instrumental in incorporating natural selection into contemporary evolutionary theory during the 1930s.

"Darwin did not persuade a great many other biologists on natural selection like he did on evolution," Edsall says. "It really was not until evolutionary synthesis of the 1930's that natural selection was built in."

Mayr remains a strong proponent of Darwin's theories.

"I have come to a conclusion," Mayr says, "Darwin was so incredibly right in almost everything he said. That is amazing."

The Prize

Mayr remarks that International Prize in Biology was created in part because the Nobel prize only awards experimental, rather than theoretical, work.

"You know, Darwin could not have won the Nobel prize," he says. "He only worked on concepts. Only about 20 percent of scientists are eligible [for the Nobel]." Mayr jokes that the other 80 percent of scientists gripe about that fact.