It's not really just Dawkins, but he did write "The Selfish Gene" which coined a lot of terms and gathered the thoughts, ideas and discoveries made by several biologists at that time. His book is a bit like a review with a lot of his own thoughts thrown in. Instead of giving him all the credit, let's rather say he was able to popularize the ideas of many biologists at that time (and now). The theories behind that book are by far at large accepted by biologists and has really helped us understand behaviour we found it hard to explain before.
Evolutionary biology and the theories behind it still have a lot of opposition which is only natural because they rock the very foundations of what so many people believe in. The Selfish Gene is a relatively easy read even for non-biologists and should be attempted by everyone.
My avatar looks your way every now and then by the way
