Asa Arthur Schaeffer

Asa Arthur Schaeffer (born May 9, 1883 in Kunklestone , Pennsylvania ; died December 19, 1980 in Philadelphia ) was an American protozoologist whose main research interest was the study of the taxonomy and behavior of amoebas .

biography

Asa Arthur Schaeffer was born in 1883 into a Pennsylvania Dutch family and was raised in the tradition of his ancestors. He was educated at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster , where he graduated in 1904. In 1908, just married, Schaeffer accepted a scholarship for a postgraduate degree in zoology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore , where he also taught and worked as a research assistant. In 1912 he received his doctorate for his work on the nutritional behavior of Stentor coeruleua and various amoeba species.

After completing his doctoral thesis, Schaeffer went to the University of Tennessee as a post-doctoral student and became a professor there in 1917 ; Here, too, the behavior of amoebas was always the focus of his work, in which he described a number of new species and was able to clarify a few basic questions about the movement of unicellular organisms on different surfaces and about feeding behavior. In 1923 he left Tennessee to protest the burgeoning dispute between fundamental religious views and scientific views on evolution.

Between 1923 and 1924 Schaffer taught at Clark College in Atlanta , Georgia , and then went to the Department of Zoology at the University of Kansas from 1924 to 1931. From 1924 to 1927 he was editor of the Journal of Morphology here . In 1931 he went back to Pennsylvania and accepted a professorship in biology and the chairmanship of the biological institute at Temple University in Philadelphia. He stayed here until his retirement in 1953, after which he was active in research and teaching for several years.

Honors

As a well-known scientist in the field of protozoology, Schaeffer received an honorary doctorate from the Franklin and Marshall College, where he began his studies. In 1978 he also became an honorary member for the 100th anniversary of the American Microscopical Society.

Works

Asa Arthur Schaeffer published numerous articles in specialist journals on the taxonomy, morphology and behavior of unicellular organisms, especially amoeba, during and after his active professional life. In addition to these, two monographs appeared that are still considered classics of protozoology to this day. The following titles represent a representative selection:

• On the reactions of Amoeba to light and the effect of light on feeding. Biological Bulletin 32, 1917; Pages 45–74 ( PDF )
• Ameboid Movement. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1920
• The Taxonomy of the Amebas, with the description of thirty-nine new marine and freshwater species. published as a monograph in Carnegie Inst. Wash. Papers Dept. Mar. Biol. 24, 1926; Pages 1–116

literature

• Eugene C. Bovee: In Memoriam: Asa Arthus Schaeffer (1883-1980) , Journal of Protozoology 28 (2), 1981; Pages 144-146.

Web links

• Asa Arthur Schaefer on the Memory Board of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )