Jerry A. Coyne received a B.S. in Biology from the College of William and Mary and a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from Harvard University. After a postdoctoral fellowship at The University of California at Davis, he took his first academic position as assistant professor in the Department of Zoology at The University of Maryland. In 1996 he joined the faculty of The University of Chicago and has been there ever since.

Coyne's scientific work has been largely concerned with the genetics of species differences, aimed at understanding the evolutionary processes that produce new species. He has written 119 scientific papers as well as a scholarly book about his research area—Speciation, co-authored in with H. Allen Orr. His first trade book (2009) presented the evidence for evolution—Why Evolution is True—and became a New York Times bestseller that was translated into 18 languages. His second trade book, Faith vs. Fact: Why Science and Religion are Incompatible was published in May, 2015 and has been translated into eight languages.

Coyne has written over 150 popular articles and book reviews in venues as diverse as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, The Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, Slate, The Nation, USA Today, and other popular periodicals. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a recipient of the 2011 Emperor Has No Clothes Award from the Freedom from Religion Foundation, as well as the 2015 Richard Dawkins Award for contributions to science and reason.

For eight years Coyne has written a popular blog, Why Evolution is True, which has over 54,000 subscribers. It deals not only with the latest research in evolutionary biology, but also a panoply of unrelated issues, including philosophy, politics, food, and cats.