Ph.D, Philosophy with Minor in History of Science and Technology, August 1997
M.A., Philosophy, June 1993

A.B., Computer Science and Philosophy (Double Major), June 1988

Chao, Hsiang-Ke, Chen, Szu-Ting, and Millstein, Roberta L. (Eds.), Mechanism and Causality in Biology and Economics, History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences, Vol. 3, Springer, forthcoming 2012.

Millstein, Roberta L. (forthcoming 2012), “Natural Selection and Causal Productivity: A Reply to Glennan” in H. Chao, S. Chen, and R. L. Millstein (eds.), Mechanism and Causality in Biology and Economics, Springer.

Millstein, Roberta L. (2011), “Chances and Causes in Evolutionary Biology: How Many Chances Become One Chance” in P. McKay Illari, F. Russo, and J. Williamson, (eds.), Causality in the Sciences, Oxford University Press, 425-444.

Millstein, Roberta L. (2010), “Should We Be Population Pluralists? A Reply to Stegenga” Biological Theory: Integrating Development, Evolution and Cognition: 5(3): 271-276.

Millstein, Roberta L. (2010), “The Concepts of Population and Metapopulation in Evolutionary Biology and Ecology” in M. A. Bell, D. J. Futuyma, W. F. Eanes, and J. S. Levinton (eds.), Evolution Since Darwin: The First 150 Years, Sunderland, MA: Sinauer, 61-86.

Millstein, Roberta L. (2009), “Populations as Individuals.” Biological Theory: Integrating Development, Evolution and Cognition: 4 (3): 267-273. Special issue on The Edges and Boundaries of Biological Objects, guest edited by M. Haber and J. Odenbaugh.

Millstein, Roberta L., Skipper, Robert A., and Dietrich, Michael R. (2009), “(Mis)interpreting Mathematical Models: Drift as a Physical Process,” Philosophy and Theory in Biology 1:e002.

Millstein, Roberta L. (2009), “Concepts of Drift and Selection in 'The Great Snail Debate' of the 1950s and Early 1960s” in Joe Cain and Michael Ruse (eds.), Descended from Darwin: Insights into the History of Evolutionary Studies, 1900-1970, Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 271-298. (commissioned)

Dietrich, Michael R. and Millstein, Roberta L. (2008), “The Role of Causal Processes in the Neutral and Nearly Neutral Theories.” Philosophy of Science 75 (5): 548-559.

Shavit, Ayelet and Millstein, Roberta L. (2008), “Group Selection is Dead! Long Live Group Selection?” BioScience 58 (7): 574-575.

Millstein, Roberta L. (2008), “Distinguishing Drift and Selection Empirically: 'The Great Snail Debate' of the 1950s.” Journal of the History of Biology 41: 339-367.

Millstein, Roberta L. (2007), “Hsp90-Induced Evolution: Adaptationist, Neutralist, and Developmentalist Scenarios.” Biological Theory: Integrating Development, Evolution and Cognition 2(4): 376-386.

Millstein, Roberta L. and Skipper, Robert A. (2007), “Population Genetics” in David Hull and Michael Ruse (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to the Philosophy of Biology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 22-43. (commissioned).

Millstein, Roberta L. (2006), “Discussion of Four Case Studies on Chance in Evolution: Philosophical Themes and Questions.” Philosophy of Science 73(5): 678-687.

Millstein, Roberta L. (2006), “Natural Selection as a Population-Level Causal Process.” The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 57(4): 627-653.

Millstein, Roberta L. (2005), “Selection vs. Drift: A Response to Brandon’s Reply.” Biology and Philosophy 20(1): 171-175.

Skipper, Robert A. and Millstein, Roberta L. (2005) “Thinking about Evolutionary Mechanisms: Natural Selection.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 36(2): 327-347. Special edition on Mechanisms in Biology, edited by C.F. Craver and L. Darden.

Millstein, Roberta L. (2003), “Interpretations of Probability in Evolutionary Theory.” Philosophy of Science 70(5): 1317-1328.

Millstein, Roberta L. (2003), “How Not to Argue for the Indeterminism of Evolution: A Look at Two Recent Attempts to Settle the Issue” in Andreas Hüttemann, (ed.), Determinism in Physics and Biology, Paderborn: Mentis, 91-107.

Millstein, Roberta L. (2002), “Evolution”, in Peter Machamer and Michael Silberstein (eds.), The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Science, Malden, MA: Blackwell, 227-251. (commissioned)

Millstein, Roberta L. (2002), “Are Random Drift and Natural Selection Conceptually Distinct?” Biology and Philosophy 17(1):33-53.

Millstein, Roberta L. (2000),“Chance and Macroevolution.” Philosophy of Science 67(4): 603-24.

Millstein, Roberta L. (1996), “Random Drift and the Omniscient Viewpoint.” Philosophy of Science 63(3 Suppl): S10-S18.

“Sex and sensibility: The role of social selection” (part of a roundtable review of Roughgarden, Joan: The Genial Gene: Deconstructing Darwinian Selfishness). Metascience 20: 258-264, 2011.

“Book review of Choosing Selection: The Revival of Natural Selection in Anglo-American Evolutionary Biology, 1930-1970, by Stephen G Brush.” Reports of the National Center for Science Education 30(6): 32, 2010 (commissioned).

“Book review of Biology's First Law: The Tendency for Diversity and Complexity to Increase in Evolutionary Systems, by Daniel W. McShea and Robert N. Brandon.” Science 330: 1048-9, 2010 (commissioned).

“Book review of Making Sense of Evolution: The Conceptual Foundations of Evolutionary Biology, by Massimo Pigliucci and Jonathan Kaplan.” Reports of the National Center for Science Education 28(3): 28-29, 2008 (commissioned).

“Book review of Reasoning in Biological Discoveries: Essays on Mechanisms, Interfield Relations, and Anomaly Resolution, by Lindley Darden.” Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2007.07.08 (commissioned).

“Book review of Adaptationism and Optimality, edited by Steven Orzack and Elliott Sober.” Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2002.05.06 (commissioned).

“Book Review of Biology and Epistemology, by Richard Creath and Jane Maienschein (Eds.).” Journal of the History of Biology 33: 411-14, 2000 (commissioned).

“Book Review of Darwinian Natural Right: The Biological Ethics of Human Nature by Larry Arnhart.” Ethics 110.3: 652, 2000 (commissioned).

“Exploring the status of population genetics: The role of ecology.” Presented in the Science Studies Program Colloquium Series, University of California, San Diego, October 2011.

“Exploring the status of population genetics: The role of ecology.” Presented at the "The Meanings of Theory in Biology" workshop, Konrad Lorenz Institute, Vienna, Austria, July 2011.

“Natural Selection and Causal Productivity: A Reply to Glennan.” Presented at the Taiwan Conference on Philosophy of Economics and Biology, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, March 2011.

“The Concept of 'Population' and 'Metapopulation' in Evolutionary Biology.” Presented at Washington University in St. Louis, History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine Seminar Series, April 2010.

“Obtaining Data on Natural Selection and Random Drift in the Wild: The Case of the Great Snail Debate.” Presented at the San Francisco State workshop, "The Experimental Side of Modeling", March 2010.

“The Causal Interactionist Concepts of 'Population' and 'Metapopulation'.” Presented at the University of Indiana, Department of History and Philosophy of Science Colloquium Series, February 2010.

“The Concept of 'Population' and 'Metapopulation' in Evolutionary Biology and Ecology.” Presented at the workshop "Darwin 2009 at Stony Brook," Stony Brook University, NY, November 2009 – couldn't present due to illness.

“Causal Processes and the Concept of "Population" in Evolutionary Biology.” Presented at the workshop "Current Issues in Darwinian Theory," Halifax, NS, October 2009.

“Chance in Biology.” Presented at the Philosophy of Science Retreat, James Reserve, San Jacinto Mountains, CA, April 2009.

“Toward a Concept of 'Population' for Evolutionary Biology and Ecology.” Presented to the Bay Area Biosystematists (BABS), Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA, April 2009.

“Toward a Concept of 'Population' for Evolutionary Biology and Ecology.” Presented as part of the Cincinnati Darwiniana Speaker Series at the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, April 2009.

“How Many Chances Become One Chance.” Presented at the Institut d'Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques (IHPST) at the Université Paris 1, Paris, France, June 2008.

“Thinking about the Concept of 'Population' in Evolutionary Biology.” Presented at the Edges & Boundaries of Biological Objects Workshop, Department of Philosophy at the University of Utah, March 13-15 2008

“Seven Things You Should Believe About Drift and Selection.” Presented at a workshop sponsored by the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IHPST) at the University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, October 2007.

“Demonstrating Chance in Evolution: Lessons From an Early Drifter.” Presented at Duke University for the Center for Philosophy of Biology's 6th annual Conference in Philosophy & Biology: "Chance in Evolution," Durham, NC, April 2007.

“The Nearly Neutral Theory of Evo-Devo?” Presented at the 2007 CSU Northridge Philosophy of Biology Conference, Northridge, CA, March 2007.

“Finding the Causes in an Evolving Population: Lessons From an Early Drifter.” Presented to the Townsend Center Working Group in the History and Philosophy of Logic, Mathematics, and Science, University of California, Berkeley, December 2006.

“Philosophical Reflections on a Historical Case Study of Random Drift.” Presented at the Future Directions in Biology Studies (FDIBS) Workshop, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, July 2006.

“The Determinism/Indeterminism Question in the Philosophy of Evolutionary Biology.” Presented at UC Santa Cruz as part the Philosophy Department's Colloquia Series, Santa Cruz, CA, April 2006.

“The Determinism/Indeterminism Question in the Philosophy of Evolutionary Biology.” Presented at Dartmouth College as part of Sapientia Lecture Series, Hanover, NH, July 2005.

“Is Natural Selection a Mechanism?” (based on a paper co-authored with Robert A. Skipper). Presented at the University of Minnesota as part of the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science Lecture Series, Minneapolis, MN, January 2005.

“Is Natural Selection a Mechanism?” (based on a paper co-authored with Robert A. Skipper) Presented at the University of Pittsburgh as part of the Center for Philosophy of Science Lecture Series, Pittsburgh, PA, January 2005.

“Why Natural Selection Matters in the Debate Over Genetically Modified Food.” Presented at the University of Cincinnati Philosophy Colloquium, Cincinnati, OH, April 2004.

“How Not to Argue for the Indeterminism of Evolution: A Look at Two Recent Attempts to Settle the Issue.” Workshop on Determinism in Physics and Biology, Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Forschung, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany, July 2002.

“Chance and Evolution.” Presented at the University of Maryland’s Committee on the History and Philosophy of Science Colloquium Series, College Park, MD, November 2001.

“The Ethics of Genetic Engineering: Should We Create Designer Babies?” Presented at the Department of Biological Science Seminar Series, California State University Hayward, Hayward, CA, May 2000.

“Determinism vs. Indeterminism in Evolutionary Biology.” Presented at the California State University, Hayward, Faculty Development Workshop, Hayward, CA, November 1999.

“Should We Clone Humans?” Presented at the California State University, Hayward Conference on Cloning, Hayward, CA, April 1998.

“On Using the Golden Rule to Preserve Subspecies.” (with J. Ramsey). Presented at the Confluences conference, Newport, Oregon, May 1997.

“Darwin's Explanation of Races by Means of Sexual Selection.” Presented at the biennial International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah, July 2011 (ISHPSSB 2011).

“Darwin's Explanation of Races by Means of Sexual Selection.” Presented at the annual History of Science Society Meeting, Montreal, Quebec, November 2010 (HSS 2010).

“The Concept of ‘Population’ and ‘Metapopulation’ in Evolutionary Biology.” Presented at the Philosophy of Biology at Madison (POBAM) workshop, Madison, WI, May 2010.

“Differentiating Natural Selection, Sexual Selection, and Social Selection ” Presented at the biennial meeting of the International Society for History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology, Brisbane, Australia, July 2009 (ISHPSSB 2009).

“(Mis)Interpreting Mathematical Models of Drift: Drift as a Physical Process” (with Robert A. Skipper and Michael R. Dietrich). Presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Pittsburgh, PA, November 2008 (PSA 2008).

“The Nearly Neutral Theory of Evo-Devo?” Presented at the biennial meeting of the International Society for History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology, Exeter, UK, July 2007 (ISHPSSB 2007).

“The Role of Causal Processes in the Neutral and Nearly Neutral Theories” (with Michael R. Dietrich). Presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Vancouver, BC, November 2006 (PSA 2006).

“Selection or Drift? Methodology in ‘The Great Snail Debate’, 1950s-1960s.” Presented at the annual meeting of the History of Science Society, Minneapolis, MN, November 2005 (HSS 2005).

“Neutralism vs. Selectionism: From Snails to Molecules.” Presented at the biennial meeting of the International Society for History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology, Guelph, Ontario, July 2005 (ISHPSSB 2005).

“Discussion of 'Four Case Studies on Chance in Evolution': Philosophical Themes and Questions.” Presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Austin, TX, November 2004 (PSA 2004).

“Natural Selection, Genetically Modified Food, and the Environment.” Presented at the International Society for Environmental Ethics session at the Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Washington, D.C., December 2003.

“Populations, Probability, and Natural Selection.” Presented at the biennial meeting of the International Society for History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology, Vienna, Austria, July 2003.

“Interpretations of Probability in Evolutionary Theory.” Presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Milwaukee, WI, November 2002.

Comments on Mark Bedau’s “A New Defense of Adaptationism.” Presented at the 54th Annual Northwest Philosophy Conference, Portland, OR, October 2002.

“Interpretations of Probability in Evolutionary Theory.” Presented at the 54th Annual Northwest Philosophy Conference, Portland, OR, October 2002.

“On Using the Golden Rule to Preserve Subspecies” (with J. Ramsey). Presented at the biennial meeting of the International Society for History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology, Hamden, CT, July 2001.

“Is the Evolutionary Process Deterministic or Indeterministic? An Argument for Agnosticism.” Presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Vancouver, Canada, November 2000.

“The Directed Mutation Controversy: Who Needs a Mechanism If You Have Causality?” Presented at the Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Philadelphia, PA, December 1997.

“Determinism vs. Indeterminism: Either Way, Evolution Is Probabilistic.” Presented at the biennial meeting of the International Society for History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology, Seattle, WA, July 1997.

“Chance and Explanation in Evolutionary Biology.” Presented at the Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Berkeley, CA, March 1997.

“Random Drift and the Omniscient Viewpoint.” Presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Cleveland, OH, November 1996.

Ex-officio member (from the PSA Governing Board) of the Advisory Board for the PhilSci Archive

Referee for Acta Biotheoretica, Biology and Philosophy, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Philosophers' Imprint, The Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophy of Science, Synthese, and the National Science Foundation Grant Program.

Alternate Commissioner, Open Space and Habitat Commission, City of Davis, appointed for 10-05-2010 through 09-30-2014.

Faculty participant, “Biology in the Desert: A Graduate Student & Faculty Workshop in Biology Studies at Arizona State University,” February 2011.

Faculty participant, “Biology by the Sea: A Graduate Student & Faculty Workshop in Biology Studies at the University of California, San Diego,” January 2010.

Member of the Ethics Committee for the Center for Elders Independence (CEI), 2006-2009.

Panel Discussion Chair, “Intellectual and Structural Boundaries: HPS, STS, and SSP” at the Southwest Colloquium for the History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences (SCHPLS), Davis, CA, April 2006.

Participant in the 2005 Dibner-MBL History of Biology Seminar, “Cosmic Evolution and Astrobiology,” Woods Hole, MA, May 15-22, 2005.

Roundtable discussant, “Models,” at the Future Directions in the History, Philosophy, and Society Studies of Biology Workshop, San Francisco, CA, September 2004.

Participant in the 2004 Dibner-MBL History of Biology Seminar, “Perspectives on Molecular Evolution,” Woods Hole, MA, May 19-26, 2004.

Chair of colloquium, “Progress and Realism in Science,” at the Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, San Francisco, CA, March 2003.

Colloquium organizer and chair, “Science, Pseudoscience, and Creationism,” presented by Phil Gasper, March 2003.

Colloquium organizer and chair, “Chance,” at the biennial meeting of the International Society for History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology, Hamden, CT, July 2001.