Gordon E. Gates

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Gordon Enoch Gates (born January 11, 1897 in Warner , New Hampshire ; died June 11, 1987 in Orange City , Florida ) was an American zoologist and university professor who researched the little bristle.

Career

Gates studied at Colby College in Waterville , Maine zoology and graduated there in 1919 with a Bachelor of Arts . He then studied at Harvard University , where he earned his M.Sc. graduated. The following year he went to Rangoon , Burma, to teach zoology as a lecturer at Judson College, a forerunner of what is now the University of Yangon . In 1922 he was appointed head of the Institute for Biology, he held this position until 1942. In the early 1930s he spent a few semesters studying for a doctoral degree at Harvard, and in 1934 did his Ph.D. During this time he visited numerous museums and specialist colleagues around the world.

Gates was married and had two daughters. The daughters were in the United States for schooling when the Pacific War began . During the Japanese invasion of Rangoon, only women and children could be evacuated on ships; the men had to walk to India for several weeks. On the first evening of the march, from the top of a hill, the refugees witnessed how one of the two refugee ships was sunk by the Japanese. It was only after weeks in India that Gates found out that his wife had survived. After the end of the war, a return to Burma was not possible; his collection, library and laboratory were destroyed.

In 1948 Gates took up a position as professor and director of the department of biology at his old university, Colby College, Maine. He stayed there until 1951, but began working with the United States Department of Agriculture in 1950 . From 1951 to 1952 he was a Guggenheim Fellow . In the mid-1960s, Gates became a research fellow at Tall Timbers Research Station near Tallahassee , Florida , but mostly worked from his home in Bangor , Maine.

research

Gates interest in the zoology of the little bristle began in 1921 with his teaching activity in Rangung. The textbooks were aimed at the western world and the species of earthworm described was the common earthworm . Gates' study of the differences between the species in Burma, carried out with his students, marked the beginning of a career in science that spanned more than six decades. In addition to the taxonomy of the little bristle Burma, Gates dealt with their physiology , regeneration , morphology and biogeography . His more than 200 scientific publications contain numerous initial descriptions . A monograph on Burma's earthworms, published in 1972, stands out among his works. Gates was unable to publish another major work on the regeneration of earthworms.

Initial descriptions (selection)

Publications (selection)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d John Warren Reynolds: Species distribution maps for Gates' Burmese Earthworms and current nomenclatural usage . In: Megadrilogica 2009, Volume 13, No. 6, pp. 53-83, ISSN  0380-9633 .
personal data
SURNAME Gates, Gordon E.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gates, Gordon Enoch (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American zoologist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH January 11, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Warner , New Hampshire
DATE OF DEATH June 11, 1987
Place of death Orange City , Florida