Jim began working in the Margulis Lab as an animator and digital content creator.  He created the animation for the Margulis movie, Eukaryosis - The Origin of Nucleated Cells.  Jim started his Master’s degree program in Geography in 2007 and received his degree in the 2011. Jim continues as a teaching assistant in the Margulis lab having been accepted in the PhD program in the Geosciences Department.

In his Master’s thesis, Jim proposed a new field, Evolution Geography, to study the history of Earth, including the living Earth system (Gaia), in the context of deep time .

Jim is the author of a chapter, “Nested Communities,” in the book Chimeras and Consciousness: Origins of the sensory self published in 2011 by MIT Press.

Jim also has a new commentary on the Homage to Darwin debate on evolution at Oxford with an afterword by Denis Noble coming out in print soon.

Jim is a member of the Massachusetts Academy of Science,  Sigma Xi, and a Fellow of the LInnean Society of London.  He is also the webmaster for the Margulis Lab. You may contact him with corrections, complaints, or comments about the website.

Prior to his work for the Margulis laboratory, Jim spent thirty years working in all aspects of videotape production, both creative and technical.  He independently produced programs on an eclectic mix of subjects. As part of a creative team with Ernest Urvater, he directed Berthe Morisot - The Forgotten Impressionist that was reviewed as "one of the best art history videos yet produced" by Art New England magazine.  Their documentary on the problems of plastic pollution in the marine environment, Troubled Waters, was shown nationally on PBS and Age of Polymers was a documentary on groundbreaking “new materials” research at the Polymer Science and Engineering Department of the University of Massachusetts. 

Jim’s work in medical and scientific video production was recognized with top honors from the Health Science Communications Association, the Society for Technical Communication (Award of Distinguished Technical Communication) and awards from the New England Chapter of the American Medical Writers Association, among others.

Jim keeps his hand in video production with various projects, including shooting the Amherst-centric soap opera, “Silent H, Deadly H” www.silenthdeadlyh.com.  His video “The Ambonese Herbal of Rumphius: Lynn Margulis interviews E.M. “Monty” Beekman” can be seen on the website of the Linnean Society of London. He also edited the version of Homage to Darwin seen on Voices from Oxford.

Jim grew up on a farm outside of Keene, NH and feels most at home tramping the woods or skiing.

Contact:  jimmymac at geo.umass.edu  or  413-545-3223

Jim in his Seagull hang glider looking for thermals back in his younger crazier days.  He is still crazy.

You are listening to "By The Virtue Of It"

words by Elisee Recluse 1869

music and performance by Heather Mumford

photo Kathleen Fisher

Jim’s lovely wife Eunice paddling in NH

Jim’s music composer son, Michael, works at Human Music and Sound Design in NYC.  Eunice is a Nurse Practitioner and faculty at Boston University’s Boston Medical Center.

Updated 01/12/2012