Edward Asahel Birge

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Edward Asahel Birge

Edward Asahel Birge (born September 7, 1851 in Troy , New York , † June 10, 1950 in Wisconsin ) was an American zoologist and one of the founding fathers of limnology .

Birge graduated from Williams College in 1873 with a BA and an MA in 1876, studied natural history at Harvard University and received his Ph.D. At the University of Wisconsin in 1879 he became a professor of natural history and zoology. He held the chair until 1911. Under his leadership, his institute grew to four chairs. From 1891 to 1918 he was dean of the College of Letters and Science of his university, from 1900 to 1903 executive president and from 1918 to 1925 president of the University of Wisconsin. In addition, he served as director of the geological and natural history research program of Wisconsin from 1897 to 1915, was active on the commissions for nature conservation and for forestry , and he was the state commissioner for fisheries .

Together with Chancey Juday , he explores Lake Mendota in Wisconsin and founded a research station there, the Wisconsin School of Limnology. He discovers u. a. the temperature stratification of the lakes . In 1911 he published a summary of his limnological research together with C. Juday. An important publication in 1916 deals with "The work of wind in warming a lake", in which he lays the theoretical basis for the energetic consideration of the stratification and circulation in lakes. His main area of ​​work, however, was research on invertebrates in the water.

In 1950 he received the Naumann Medal .

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