Portrait of Ursula Goodenough

Birthday profile

Ursula Goodenough

Ursula Goodenough, American biologist, zoologist, and author

Born
March 16, 1943
Age in 2026
83
Zodiac sign
Pisces
Birth year
1943

About Ursula Goodenough

Ursula W. Goodenough (born March 16, 1943) is a retired Professor of Biology Emerita at Washington University in St. Louis, where she researched on eukaryotic algae. She authored the textbook Genetics and the best-selling book The Sacred Depths of Nature and speaks regularly about religious naturalist orientation and evolution. She contributed to the NPR blog 13.7: Cosmos & Culture from 2009 to 2011. She currently serves as president of the Religious Naturalist Association. In 2023, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. == Background and Education == Goodenough, daughter of Erwin Ramsdell Goodenough and Evelyn Goodenough Pitcher, was born on March 16, 1943, in New York City. She earned a B.A. in zoology from Barnard College in 1963, an M.A. in zoology at Columbia University in 1965, and a Ph.D. in biology at Harvard University in 1969. From 1963 to 1964, she was a Eugene Higgins Fellow at Columbia University and later became an NIH Pre-Doctoral Fellow at Columbia and Harvard in 1964–1969. She was an assistant and associate professor of biology at Harvard from 1971 to 1978 before moving to Washington University.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

The world when Ursula Goodenough was born

Ursula Goodenough was born in 1943. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1943

  • #1 song"As Time Goes By" – Dooley Wilson
  • Top movieFor Whom the Bell Tolls
  • Best-selling bookThe Robe – Lloyd C. Douglas

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentAll-American Girls Professional Baseball League founded
  • Top headlineAllies invade Italy
  • Technology milestoneLSD accidentally discovered by Albert Hofmann
  • Defining fadZoot suits
  • Notable inventionSlinky
  • World population2.38 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • U.S. population136.7M

1943 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Ursula Goodenough's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19432026
Gas$0.21$3.45/gal
Average home$5,700$435,000
Average income$4,100$67,500
Minimum wage$0.30$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.27$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population136.7M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.