Lim Boo Liat

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Lim Boo Liat (born August 21, 1926 in Klang , Federated Malay States ; died July 11, 2020 in Cheras ) was a Malaysian zoologist and parasitologist . Lim worked as a parasitologist and later as a zoologist at the Malay Institute for Medical Research (IMR) after World War II , where he researched rat-borne diseases and parasites. He also dealt with biodiversityMalaysia, focusing on the country's vertebrate fauna. After his retirement he worked actively as a fee advisor for the Department of Wildlife and National Parks Peninsular Malaysia (Jabatan Perlindenan Hidupan Liar dan Taman Negara Semenanjung Malaysia, abbreviated PERHILITAN).

Life and academic career

Lim Boo Liat was born in 1926 in the Malay city of Klang in the Federated Malay States in what is now the state of Selangor in Malaysia, which was founded in 1963. With the outbreak of World War II , he had to interrupt his schooling and take odd jobs to support his family; he had only completed lower secondary school (Junior Cambridge). He went to Carey Island in the coastal region of Selangor, where he set up a company to extract table salt from seawater in the Strait of Malacca . On Carey Island he befriended members of the Orang Asli , who showed him how they hunted and differentiated animals. He closed his factory after the Japanese lost the war and moved back to Klang to live with his family.

In 1947 he was able to take up a position as a laboratory assistant at the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) in Kuala Lumpur , although he had no scientific training. His first assignment was to study typhoid , which is spread by mites as a vector and by rats in the Malay forests as a reservoir host. During the Burma campaign in 1942 there was an outbreak of the disease, from which numerous soldiers of the Allied and Japanese troops died. Several scientists were sent there to investigate the deaths and Lim Boo Liat was given the task of collecting the results for a database. In 1947 he got the post as permanent laboratory assistant. His duties also included trips to Borneo , Vietnam , Laos , Cambodia and Thailand under the direction of the Bishop Museum at the University of Hawaii to study small mammals and their parasites. During this time he also helped to set up the National Zoo, together with Tan Sri VM Hutson and Datuk Kington Loo and officials from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks Malaysia (DWNP). He was also instrumental in the revival of the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), which was paused during the Second World War, in 1948.

In 1967 Lim developed the concept of "ecological labeling" using parasite patterns, which is now accepted and used by animal behavior and mammal researchers worldwide. Due to a chance observation in his laboratory he found that the large rat hedgehog ( Echinosorex gymnura ), English "moonrat", which actually lives on insects , could also feed on fish and determined by examining endoparasites of the animals that it was these are actually fish parasites that they ingest with food. He concluded that endoparasites are good indicators for ecological labeling, as they allow conclusions to be drawn about the ecology and way of life of the animals. With rats, he also studied the rat lungworm ( Angiostrongylus cantonensis ), which lives as a parasite in the lungs of rats, over a period of 10 years . The larvae of the third development stage can be transmitted to humans as a zoonosis through the consumption of food and vegetables contaminated with rat droppings. The rat excrement gets on the plants by snails, which have picked it up on the ground and transported it to the vegetables. In humans, the larvae reach the brain via the bloodstream, where they develop and feed on the meninges ; this can lead to serious damage and death.

With the help of a Sino-British foundation prize, Lim was able to spend a year and a half on animal ecology at the University of Oxford with Charles S. Elton and later with George Dunnet at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and the taxonomy of mammals at the Natural History Museum in London with John Edward Study Hill . In 1961 he returned to the Institute for Medical Research, where he took over the management and began to publish scientifically. In 1969 he received a grant from the Medical Research Council to do his Masters at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. After returning to IMR in 1972, he received his doctorate from Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang . In 1977 he was sent to the World Health Organization (WHO) in Indonesia to head the research department for the control of vector biology in Jakarta and subsequently its research planning and personnel development program. He stayed there for 10 years until 1987 and worked primarily in the areas of disease and pest control and malaria research .

Lim became a volunteer advisor to the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) in Kuala Lumpur in setting up a research laboratory for small animals (mammals, reptiles and amphibians). In the meantime, he continued to work as a small mammal research advisor with the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) and was an advisor to the DANCED management of the Krau Wildlife Reserve , Pahang . He has been made a Visiting Scientific Fellow at the Institute for Environment and Development at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and has also served as an advisor to the Malayan Nature Society (MNS), where he is an honorary member. In his further research, Lim focuses primarily on the vertebrate fauna of Malaysia and its ecology . His work on these animal groups gave an important insight into the biodiversity and species numbers of vertebrates in Malaysia. He focused on mammals , especially rodents and bats , as well as amphibians and reptiles , especially snakes . He also contributed significantly to the publication of the Red List of Mammals of the Malay Peninsula.

Honors and Dedication Names

Lim has received numerous awards and honors for his research. He received:

Several species were also named after Lim. In addition to the parasitic worms Helimonella limbooliati , Plasmodium booliati and Brienlia booliati , the flea Medwayellia limi , the parasitic unicellular organism Sarcocytis booliati and the frog Kalophrynus limbooliati received appropriate dedication names .

Works

By 2014 Lim wrote over 300 scientific papers on host parasite relationships and rodent control as well as on small mammals, amphibians and reptiles and in local and international journals. There were also two books that he wrote as an author and three more that he helped to write.

He was also the first to describe several vertebrate species, often together with other authors, as well as the author of systematic revisions and regional faunas.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Malaysian zoology pioneer Dr Lim Boo Liat dies at 94. Retrieved on July 24, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Cim Chia Ying: A zoologist talks about life among the wilds The Star, April 14, 2014; accessed on November 3, 2019.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Dr. Lim Boo Liat , profile on the Merdeka Award 2013 page; accessed on November 3, 2019.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lim, Boo Liat
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Malaysian zoologist and parasitologist
DATE OF BIRTH August 21, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Klang , Federated Malay States
DATE OF DEATH July 11, 2020
Place of death Cheras