Elizabeth Lack
Elizabeth Lack (born Silva ; June 1916 in Hertfordshire ; † July 31, 2015 in Boars Hill, Oxford ) was a British ornithologist . She was married to ornithologist David Lack from 1949 to 1973 .
Life
Elizabeth Lack grew up as the daughter of the grain producer Jack Silva in Kent . She developed an intense interest in birds and nature at an early age. She also had a desire to study piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London, but had to give up the plan when World War II broke out. During the war, she served with 217,000 other women in the Auxiliary Territorial Service in England and France, where she was mostly responsible for maintaining and driving ambulances.
When David Lack was appointed director of the Edward Gray Institute of Field Ornithology (EGI) in October 1945 , he was looking for a secretary for the institute. Elizabeth applied and was hired on January 1, 1946. David Lack saw her passion for the study of birds and made her a part-time assistant. Their field work consisted of the robins - and Meis nests in Wytham Woods to monitor and breeding success of the 1946-1950 Swift to monitor that the tower of the Oxford University Museum hatched. In 1951 she published the article The Breeding Biology of the Swift Apus Apus in the journal Ibis . David and Elizabeth Lack became engaged in 1948 and married in July 1949. This marriage had four children: Peter Christopher Lack (* 1952, an ornithologist), Andrew John Lack (* 1953, a botanist), Paul Lack (* 1957 , a freelance teacher) and Catherine Lack (born 1959, a university chaplain). After the birth of her first son, Elizabeth Lack left the EGI to devote herself to raising children.
Lack co-edited the books Island Biology (1976, with David Lack) and A Dictionary of Birds (1985, with Bruce Campbell ), and she was in 1986 for the text adaptation of her son's The Atlas of the Wintering Birds in Britain and Ireland Peter Christopher Lack responsible.
Elizabeth Lack was an honorary member of the British Ornithologists' Union .
literature
- Ted R. Anderson: Swifts in the Tower In: The Life of David Lack: Father of Evolutionary Ecology , Oxford University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-19992-264-2 , pp. 103-120 (with a short biography on Elizabeth Paint)
- Ted R. Anderson: In Memoriam: Elizabeth Lack, 1916–2015 In: The Auk Volume 133, September 2016, pp. 818–819 doi : 10.1642 / AUK-16-88.1
Web links
- Literature by and about Elizabeth Lack in the WorldCat bibliographic database
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lack, Elizabeth |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Silva, Elizabeth (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British ornithologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 1916 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hertfordshire |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 31, 2015 |
| Place of death | Boars Hill, Oxford |