Harry Godwin

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Sir Harry Godwin (born May 9, 1901 in Rotherham , South Yorkshire , † August 12, 1985 ) was a British botanist . He was a leading figure in plant ecology and Quaternary research and made a name for himself in the development and application of the radiocarbon method and palynology (pollen analysis, especially using electron microscopy ).

Life

Godwin grew up in Long Eaton , Derbyshire , and was an active Boy Scout as a child . During the war years 1914 to 1918 he attended secondary school, where he studied German intensively in addition to the natural sciences. In preparation for the studies, he worked at the geologist Henry Hurd Swinnerton (1875-1966) at University College Nottingham (forerunner of the University of Nottingham , at that time a branch of the University of London ) and heard the first lectures at Clare College of the University of Cambridge .

From 1919 he studied botany, geology and chemistry at Clare College as part of the scientific tripo , which he graduated with honors in 1922. In the same year he obtained a bachelor's degree in botany (minor in geology) at the University of London. In 1926 he earned a Ph.D. at Clare College. His teachers included Arthur George Tansley and Henry Thirkill , with whom Godwin had a longstanding friendship.

From 1922 Godwin conducted research with the plant physiologist Frederick Blackman , from 1925 he held a research position at Clare College, in 1927 he was (as the successor to Samuel Macmahon Wadham , 1891-1972) Senior University Demonstrator , in 1934 he became a college fellow and lecturer for botany the University. In 1948 he was the founding director of the new Quaternary Research Department , a position he held until 1966. 1958/1959 Godwin was in the successor of Thirkill interim master of the Clare College. From 1960 to 1968 Godwin was Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge . After his retirement in 1968, Godwin remained scientifically active.

In addition to numerous journal articles, Godwin published several monographs . In 1930 his textbook Plant biology ("plant biology ", ie botany) was published, which had been reprinted three times by 1945. The first edition of History of the British Flora was published in 1956 and the second edition in 1975. Cambridge and Clare (1985) is an autobiographical writing covering his five decades at Clare College and the University of Cambridge .

Richard Gilbert West and Nicholas Shackleton are among his numerous students, both of whom succeeded him in the position of director of the Quaternary Research Division at the University of Cambridge. Since 1927 Godwin was married to Margaret Elizabeth Daniels, with whom he also published together. The couple had a son (1934–1974).

Godwin has been the namesake for the Godwin cliffs in Antarctica since 1998 .

research

Godwin published in numerous areas of botany.

Early work dealt with plant physiology , particularly issues of plant respiration and withering . Later questions of plant anatomy were added, fueled in his later years by the development of electron microscopy , with which the structure of pollen in particular could be analyzed.

As early as 1923 Godwin had dealt with the influence of humans on the plant sociology of bog areas. Further works in plant ecology dealt with plant succession during the process of silting up and the formation of raised bogs , as well as with various aspects of population ecology .

Godwin's contribution to Quaternary research is considered to be outstanding , especially as an interdisciplinary approach. His department for Quaternary research, which he headed from 1948 to 1966, belonged to both botany and geology , archeology and anthropology at Cambridge University. The department researched the history of vegetation and the radiocarbon method, climate history and marine geology , insects and snails , and the stratigraphy of the seas and continents. Godwin himself conducted extensive pollen analysis in the moors of Great Britain . Overall, Godwin made a special contribution to the exploration of the Wicken Fen , a nature reserve in Cambridgeshire .

Together with his wife Margaret, Godwin published the first original works on the vegetation history of Britain in the 1930s . Over three decades he was able to contribute to numerous details of paleoecology , peat stratigraphy, fluctuations in sea levels and archeology (especially the Bronze Age ). Godwin can be considered one of the founders of an environmental archeology (compare archaeobotany ). Godwin's later work dealt increasingly with the Flanders Transgression , the rise in sea level after the last glacial period , and its effects on various moorland areas .

Godwin turned the radiocarbon method of Willard Libby to the dating of biological samples. For this he had a specialized laboratory (under EH Willis) set up in his department. In particular, a synchronicity of the pollen distribution and thus a parallelism of the vegetation history of the British Isles and Northwestern Europe could be shown.

Godwin published numerous systematic reviews (reviews) on the following questions: pollen analysis, pollen analysis and forest history of Britain, pollen analysis and Quaternary geology , prehistoric charcoal, coastal peatlands and variations in sea level, stratigraphy of Reegenmoors, climate change and archeology, glacier -Pollenanalyse, the last ice age , trails climatic changes in peat, history of the flora of Britain, pollen analysis in mineral soils , or radiocarbon method and archeology. In 1975 Sir Godwin applied the theory of ice age retreats to the flora of the British Isles.

Awards (selection)

swell

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cambridge Quaternary - Directors: Professor Richard Gilbert West FRS. In: quaternary.group.cam.ac.uk. August 27, 2008, accessed April 15, 2017 .
  2. ^ Cambridge Quaternary - Directors: Professor Sir Nicholas Shackleton FRS. In: quaternary.group.cam.ac.uk. March 27, 2012, accessed April 23, 2017 .
  3. ^ Wicken Fen: Research ( Memento from May 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ Daniel Gomes da Rocha, Igor L. Käfer: What has become of the refugia hypothesis to explain biological diversity in Amazonia? in "Ecology and Evolution", March 27, 2019, online , paragraphs 2 and 4.
  5. ^ The Geological Society of London - Prestwich Medal. In: geolsoc.org.uk. August 24, 2016. Retrieved April 15, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Award winners. In: docs.google.com. Retrieved April 15, 2017 .
  7. ^ Member entry by Harry Godwin (with picture) at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on April 15, 2017.
  8. ↑ Recipients of the Linnean Medal (PDF, 89 kB, status 2010) ( Memento from February 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present (PDF, 1.1 MB) at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org); accessed on April 15, 2017.
  10. ^ German Quaternary Association: Prize Winner. In: deuqua.org. Retrieved April 16, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Godwin, Harry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British botanist
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Rotherham , South Yorkshire
DATE OF DEATH August 12, 1985