| George F. Oster | |
| Birth Date: | April 20, 1940 |
| Birth Place: | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Fields: | Biology |
| Workplaces: | University of California, Berkeley |
| Alma Mater: | U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Columbia University University of California, Berkeley |
| Thesis Title: | High temperature saturated liquid and vapor densities and the critical point of cesium |
| Thesis Url: | https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog/2365176 |
| Thesis Year: | 1967 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Charles F. Bonilla |
| Spouses: | )--> |
George Frederick Oster NAS (April 20, 1940 – April 15, 2018)[1] was an American mathematical biologist, and Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at University of California, Berkeley.[2] [3] [4] He made seminal contributions to several varied fields including chaos theory, population dynamics, membrane dynamics and molecular motors.[5] He was a 1985 MacArthur Fellow.
He graduated from Columbia University, with a Ph.D., in Nuclear Engineering in 1967.[6] He was appointed as an assistant professor in at UC Berkeley in 1970.[6] In the early 1970s Oster collaborated with Aharon Katzir-Katchalsky on statistical mechanics.
Oster's work with E. O. Wilson on populations dynamics of social animals, particularly ants, is considered pioneering work in evolution in social insects. Oster was one of the first theoretical biologists to understand that a complex interplay between mechanical and chemical forces was at the root of most biological phenomena.[6]
He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004.[7] Oster was a Guggenheim Fellow, and a member of the science board of the Santa Fe Institute.