Give that microbiologist a medal

Wednesday, March 25, 1998 | 10:03 a.m.

Lynn Margulis, a microbiologist at the University of Massachusetts who studies bacteria's influence on biology and environmental conditions, will receive the Nevada Medal and $10,000 cash, Gov. Bob Miller announced Wednesday.

Margulis is most well known for her contribution to the "Gaia hypothesis," named for the Greek goddess of the Earth. The theory proposes that life, especially microorganisms and plants, provides the Earth with natural, self-regulating mechanisms to set surface temperature and the chemistry of the air and the oceans.

Margulis holds a distinguished university professorship on the Amherst campus in Massachusetts. She has been a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences since 1983.

Margulis will present public lectures on "Gaia to Microcosm" at UNLV April 23. She will give the same lecture April 22 in Reno.

The Desert Research Institute sponsors the annual Nevada Medal, awarded to an outstanding scientist or engineer.

Margulis' current research, mainly sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is focused on trying to reconstruct the nature of microbial evolution to help assess what might be discovered on other planets.

She has published more than 130 scientific papers as well as co-authored several popular books on science for non-technical audiences with her son, Dorion Sagan.

Margulis also is a member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and holds six honorary doctorates from other universities. She is fluent in Spanish and French.