He has a particular interest in behavioural ecology and evolutionary biology, and is most noted for introducing the concept of sperm competition in 1970.[3]
Much of his work from the 1970s onwards has related to the application of game theory (theory of games) to various biological problems, using the evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) approach pioneered by John Maynard Smith and George Price.
With R. R. Baker and V. G. F. Smith in 1972, he proposed a leading theory for the evolution of anisogamy and two sexes, and in 1979 made the first theoretical analysis of sexual conflict in evolution. He has also investigated the evolution of competitive mate searching, animal distributions, animal fighting, coercion, intrafamilial conflict, complex life cycles, and several other topics.[4]
Life
Parker was educated at Lymm Grammar School in Lymm, Cheshire, and gained his BSc from University of Bristol in 1965, from where he also gained a doctorate in 1969 under H.E. Hinton, FRS (1912–1977).[5] His Ph.D. was on The reproductive behaviour and the nature of sexual selection in Scatophaga stercoraria L. (yellow dung fly), and provided a detailed quantitative test of Darwin's theory of sexual selection, and an early application of optimality theory in biology.
In 1978, he was a senior research fellow in the Research Centre at King's College, Cambridge University, returning to Liverpool in 1979. He became a professor in 1989 on election to the Royal Society,
In 1996, he became the Derby Chair of Zoology, retiring in 2009, but remaining as emeritus professor and continuing scientific research (as of 2014).
In 2005, he won the Frink Medal, of the Zoological Society of London.
for his lifetime contribution to the foundations and development of behavioural ecology, in particular for understanding evolutionary adaptations and their consequences for natural populations.
He has been awarded the degrees of Doctor of Science, honoris causa by the University of Bristol.[5] in 2011, and by the Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2018.
^Parker, Geoff (1970). "Sperm competition and its evolutionary consequences in insects". Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. 45 (4): 525–567. doi:10.1111/j.1469-185X.1970.tb01176.x. S2CID85156929.