Ernst Mayr. Photo by Jane Reed.

Ernst Mayr was surprised when he received a phone call from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards Nobel Prizes. He has been active in biology for more than 70 years, but no Nobels are given in that field.

There are a number of honors, however, that carry as much prestige for biologists -- the Balzan Prize, the International Prize for Biology, and the Crafoord Prize. Mayr, now 94, won the first one in 1983, the second in 1994, and this month he captured the Crafoord, which is given by the Swedish Academy.

Asked how he feels about winning biology's triple crown, Mayr answered, "Pleased and happy; what else could one be!"

The 1999 Crafoord, awarded for pioneering contributions to broadening the understanding of evolution, will be shared by Mayr, John Maynard Smith of the University of Sussex, England, and George C. Williams of the State University of New York. They will share $500,000 and will each receive a gold medal at ceremonies in Stockholm in September.

Mayr says he will give most of his prize money to a charity or charities for the blind. Using $130,000 he received with the Balzan Prize, Mayr established a fellowship program at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology. Part of approximately $100,000 from the International Prize for Biology went to the Nature Conservancy.

Called "the greatest living evolutionary biologist" by Harvard colleague Stephen Jay Gould, Mayr has thought and written extensively about how evolution happens. He is best known for clarifying how a new species forms and adapts to changes in its environment.

Mayr also has made notable contributions to the study of birds, and the history and philosophy of biology. In 1970, he won the National Medal of Science, the highest scientific award give by the United States government. In 1995, the Museum of Comparative Zoology Library was named in his honor.

At 94, Mayr still works, or thinks about work, every day. Reached by phone in Florida, he was working on two books. One book, he said, is a primer on evolution for nonbiologists. The other, of which he is co-author, analyzes the ecological specialization of two groups of birds in New Guinea.

After graduation from the University of Berlin in 1926, Mayr participated in three expeditions to the New Guinea area, where he studied and collected birds.

These books add to a list of scholarly publications that runs 40 pages long. "Writing about biology and philosophy is now my main pleasure," he said. "I'm having a wonderful time." Previously, he commented that he will keep going "until I leave my office feet first."

Mayr doesn't believe that intelligent life exists on other worlds. He agrees that there may be billions of other planets in the universe, but calls the presence of life on any of them "highly improbable."

Nor does he think of evolution as a grand natural plan whereby animals become more complex and intelligent until the peak is reached with humans. Rather, he sees us as the fortuitous outcome of a long series of chance events, any one of which could have resulted in a different outcome.