SFI Science Board Fellow Simon Levin (Princeton University) has been named a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Society announced on May 27, 2026.
Levin is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton. He has been involved with SFI for more than three decades, joining the SFI Science Board in 1994 and serving as its chair from 2007 to 2010. In 1996, he delivered SFI's third annual Stanisław Ulam Memorial Lectures, which later resulted in his book Fragile Dominion: Complexity and the Commons. Levin remains an SFI Science Board Fellow.
Levin's environmental research “focuses on complexity, particularly how large-scale patterns — including at the ecosystem level — emerge from individual behaviors and local environmental factors,” writes Princeton in an announcement. Since the 1970s, his work has been rooted in mathematical theories and models to better understand a range of environmental issues. In recent years, Levin’s work has explored socio-political dynamics in the clean energy transition, Covid’s Catch-22 and the co-evolution of mask-wearing and epidemics, and the effectiveness of influencers working toward the good of society.
Levin is among 90 “outstanding researchers from across the world” who joined the Royal Society as Fellows this year. Previous awardees include External Professors Mark Pagel and Mark Newman, former Science Board member Lord Martin Rees, and the late Lord Robert May, former Chair of the Science Board.
“I am deeply honored to join the Royal Society,” Levin says in Princeton’s announcement of the award. “Not only is it the oldest national scientific academy in the world, but I am especially grateful because the scholars who elected me include colleagues whom I have known and respected for decades. I am thrilled to join them and to contribute in whatever way I can to the great work the Royal Society performs.”
The Royal Society, founded in 1660, is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence. Its goals are to “expand the frontiers of knowledge by championing the development and use of science, mathematics, engineering, and medicine for the benefit of humanity and the good of the planet.”