Dr. Margulis, a distinguished university professor of geosciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Clinton in 1999 for her work in evolution, died Nov. 22 in her Amherst home.
She was 73 and had suffered a stroke a few days earlier. Given the history of strokes in her family, she had left instructions that she did not want to be kept alive through artificial means.
“She leaves us a legacy of academic accomplishment brought about by her original thought and tireless inquiry into multiple fields of science that look at how the world functions and how that magnificent world has developed over time,’’ said Robert C. Holub, chancellor of the university. Dr. Margulis, who was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1983, was known for the breadth of her intellect, which extended far beyond the area of her accomplishments.
“Where a lot of other scientists tend to not learn outside their field, my mom wasn’t afraid to look outside her discipline and try to understand what others were doing,’’ said her daughter Jennifer of Ashland, Ore.
Steve Goodwin, dean of the UMass-Amherst College of Natural Sciences, said in a statement that Dr. Margulis “was a different kind of scientist, one who does not come along very often. Her great gift was making connections, connections that others just couldn’t make.’’
That talent sometimes led Dr. Margulis into controversial realms. For example, she supported and worked with scientist James E. Lovelock, whose Gaia theory suggests that the earth, its atmosphere, and its inhabitants collectively form a self-regulating system.
Dr. Margulis also questioned the general medical understanding of AIDS.
“Our claim is that there’s no evidence that HIV is an infectious virus, or even an entity at all,’’ she told Discover magazine for the April interview. “There’s no scientific paper that proves the HIV virus causes AIDS.’’
Dr. Margulis did not shy from challenging orthodox beliefs.
