Richard Dawkinsis the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University and a fellow of New College.The Selfish Genecatapulted Richard Dawkins to fame, and remains his most famous and widely read work. It was followed by a string of bestselling books:The Extended Phenotype,The Blind Watchmaker,River Out of Eden,Climbing Mount Improbable,Unweaving the Rainbow,The Ancestor's Taleand a collection of his shorter writingsA Devil's Chaplain. Dawkins is a Fellow of both the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Literature. He is the
recipient of numerous honours and awards, including the 1987 Royal Society of Literature Award, the 1990 Michael Faraday Award of the Royal Society, the 1997 International Cosmos Prize for Achievement in Human Science, the Kistler Prize in 2001, and the Shakespeare Prize in 2005.
In February 2006 Channel 4 broadcast two documentaries called The Root of All Evil? written and presented by Richard Dawkins, which explored some of the arguments developed in this book.