John Stanley Gardiner

John Stanley Gardiner with his second wife Edith in the 1930s

John Stanley Gardiner (born January 24, 1872 in Belfast , † February 28, 1946 ) was a British zoologist and a pioneer in the study of tropical coral reefs .

Live and act

John Stanley Gardiner was interested in marine biology and took part in an expedition of the British Royal Society to Funafuti in the Pacific in 1896 . He then did a lot of research on topics related to corals, especially stony corals and the environmental factors that influence their distribution. In addition to identifying new species and their taxonomy , he also looked at their diet and growth behavior.

Between 1897 and 1909 he organized and led three major expeditions to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, including the Percy Sladen Trust Expedition to the Indian Ocean in 1905 . In 1908, at the age of only 36, he was appointed to the Royal Society.

After 1909 to 1937, his obligations as professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at the University of Cambridge prevented personal participation in further expeditions. However, his work, questions and initiatives led to important expeditions, such as the expedition to the Great Barrier Reef 1928–1929 off Australia's east coast, which was led by the British marine biologist Charles Maurice Yonge .

Honors

• The earwig Chaetospania gardineri , native to the Seychelles , was named after John Stanley Gardiner in 1910.
• In 1929 he received the Alexander Agassiz Medal , a US award for oceanography .
• In 1936 he was awarded the Linnaeus Medal for Honored Zoologists and Botanists.
• In 1944 he was awarded the Darwin Medal of the Royal Society for important contributions in the field of biology , "in recognition of his work on coral reefs and the organisms that live there".

swell

• J. Gray: Prof. J. Stanley Gardiner, FRS . In: Nature 157, 616-617 (May 11, 1946). ( online )