William Patten (1861-1932) was an American biologist and zoologist at University of North Dakota and Dartmouth College noted for work on fossil ostracoderms, ideas on the origin of vertebrates from arachnids and his 1919 address to the American Association for the Advancement of Science and follow-up book about The Grand Strategy of Evolution: the Social Philosophy of a Biologist.

He attended Harvard university (then known as the Lawrence Scientific School[1]) and was awarded the Walker prize of the Boston Society of Natural History during his first year for an essay about Myology and osteology of the cat.

Patten studied marine invertebrates with Leuckart's group, developing a life-long interest in embryology and evolutionary relationships.

Among others at the laboratory was William Morton Wheeler and Patten influenced him to study insect embryology and development using the cockroach as an example, which became an important part of his future career.

For example, in summer 1890 he was commissioned by the Botanical Division of the United States Department of Agriculture to collect specimens of grass from North Dakota for a project to determine if any were suitable for growing for grazing without irrigation.

Patten continued to work on the phylogeny of ostracoderms, scorpions and primitive fish as well some a minor interests such as the embryology of molluscs and arthropods.

[2] He travelled worldwide during summer vacations to collect fossils, including to Australia, Japan, Costa Rica, Cuba, Labrador and the Baltic region.

This became a course where he and other members of the academic staff linked science, including evolution of humans and Darwin's theory, to other disciplines.

In 1919 he addressed the annual meeting of American Association for the Advancement of Science about “The Message of the Biologist”[5] and followed this with a book The Grand Strategy of Evolution: the Social Philosophy of a Biologist[6] He outlined a philosophy of science in service to society that invoked chemistry theory, mixed with evolution theory and ecology.

[9] He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa society, recognising excellence in the sciences and liberal arts from a small number of universities in the USA.