Merritt Lyndon Fernald
Merritt Lyndon Fernald (born October 5, 1873 in Orono , Maine , † September 22, 1950 in Cambridge , Massachusetts ) was an American botanist . He spent his entire academic career at Harvard University . His author's abbreviation is " Fernald ".
Life
Merritt Lyndon Fernald attended Maine State College (now the University of Maine ) from 1890 and published his first botanical articles in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club a little later . The quality of these contributions meant that Sereno Watson became aware of him and give him a job at the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University offered whose curator he was. Fernald then moved to Cambridge and worked as an assistant at the Gray Herbarium from 1891, while he continued his studies in parallel and finished them in 1897 with a Bachelor of Science at the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard.
As a result, Fernald spent his entire academic career at Harvard University, where he rose to assistant professor there in 1905 before being appointed Fisher Professor of Natural History in 1915 . He held this position until his retirement in 1947. At the same time he acted as curator from 1935 to 1937 and as director of the Gray Herbarium from 1937 to 1947.
Fernald had been married since 1907 and had three children. He died in Cambridge on September 22, 1950 at the age of 76.
Scientific work
Fernald was primarily concerned with phytogeography , in particular with the flora of North America's east, so he undertook numerous field studies in his native New England , but also in Virginia and Québec . In addition, he first described a number of plant species, including the genera Physalis and Brachistus , and dealt with plant ecology . In total, he published over 750 specialist articles and was involved in several editions of the standard work Gray's Manual of Botany . He was also active in the Botanical Society of America and was its president in 1942.
Honors
Fernald was a member of numerous honorary scientific societies, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1900), the National Academy of Sciences (1935), the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Philosophical Society (1936). Abroad he has been honored by the Linnean Society of London , the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala , the Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica and the Norwegian Academy of Sciences , among others . In addition, the Acadia University (1932) and the Université de Montréal (1938) awarded him honorary doctorates .
The plant genus Fernaldia Woodson from the dog venom family (Apocynaceae) was named after him .
Web links
- Biography and list of publications on Harvard University Herbaria pages
- Biography and bibliography on Harvard University Library pages
literature
- Elmer Drew Merrill : Merritt Lyndon Fernald. National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs, Issue 28, Washington, DC , 1954, pp. 45-98. (available as a pdf version at nasonline.org )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Fernald, Merritt Lyndon |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Fernald, Merritt L .; Fernald ML |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American botanist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 5, 1873 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Orono , Maine , United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 22, 1950 |
| Place of death | Cambridge , Massachusetts , United States |