Emil K. Urban

Emil Karl Urban (born May 27, 1934 - January 24, 2014 in Augusta , Georgia ) was an American ornithologist. His research focus was the African avifauna.

Live and act

Urban grew up in Milwaukee and Whitefish Bay , Wisconsin . In 1956 he received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison . At the University of Kansas , under the direction of Harrison Bruce Tordoff and Richard Johnson , he conducted an avifaunistic study of the birds of Coahuila, Mexico as part of his master’s degree. 1964 Urban with his doctoral thesis A comparative study of locomotion in some teiid lizards to the Ph.D. PhD from the University of Wisconsin. From 1964 to 1975 he worked in Ethiopia. He taught at Haile Selassie I. University (now Addis Ababa University ) and conducted ornithological field studies. In 1976 Urban took over the chairmanship of the biological faculty at Augusta College (later Augusta State University ), where he taught as a professor for 29 years. In 1997, he was appointed to the Fuller Earle Callaway Chair in Biology, the most prestigious faculty post in the Georgia university system. From 1982 to 2004 Urban was co-editor and co-author of the first seven volumes of the standard work The Birds of Africa .

Works (selection)

• Birds from Coahuila, Mexico, 1959
• Shell Guide to Ethiopian Birds, 1966
• Report on the world wildlife expedition to the rain forests of Southwest Ethiopia, 1969 (with Leslie H. Brown )
• Bibliography of the avifauna of Ethiopia, 1970
• A checklist of the birds of Ethiopia, 1971 (with Leslie H. Brown)
• Ethiopia's endemic birds, 1980
• Laboratory manual for Introductory Biology, 1982 (with James H. Bickert, Judith E. Gordon, Russell E. Stullken and John B. Black)
• The Birds of Africa, Vol. 1: Ostriches and Birds of Prey, 1982 (with Leslie H. Brown and Kenneth B. Newman )
• The Birds of Africa, Vol. 2: Game Birds to Pigeons, 1986 (with Charles Hilary Fry and Stuart Keith )
• The Birds of Africa, Vol. 3: Parrots to Woodpeckers, 1988 (with Charles Hilary Fry and Stuart Keith)
• The Birds of Africa, Vol. 4: Broadbills to Chats, 1992 (with Charles Hilary Fry and Stuart Keith)
• The Birds of Africa, Vol. 5: Thrushes to Puffback Flycatchers, 1997 (with Charles Hilary Fry and Stuart Keith)
• The Birds of Africa, Vol. 6: Picathartes to Oxpeckers, 2000 (with Charles Hilary Fry and Stuart Keith)
• The Birds of Africa, Vol. 7: Sparrows to Buntings, 2004 (with Charles Hilary Fry, and Stuart Keith)

literature

• James A. Kushlan: Emil K. Urban, 1934-2014. The Auk January 2016: Vol. 133, Issue 1 (Jan 2016), pp. 119-121
• Emil Urban Obituary In: The Augusta Chronicle from 26./27. January 2014