William Morton Wheeler
William Morton Wheeler (born March 19, 1865 in Milwaukee , † April 19, 1937 in Cambridge (Massachusetts) , USA) was at the beginning of the 20th century as the recognized authority in the field of research on ants and other social insects . He is widely regarded as the first major ethologist in North America.
Life
William Morton Wheeler began his studies at the German-English Academy of Peter Engelmann in Milwaukee, today's University School of Milwaukee , where he worked from 1885 to 1887 as a teacher. From 1887 to 1890 he was director of the Milwaukee Public Museum . After receiving his doctorate from Clark University (1890-1892) he was professor of zoology at the University of Chicago (1892-1899). He then taught from 1899 to 1903 at the Zoological Institute of the University of Texas at Austin . He then worked from 1903 to 1908 at the American Museum of Natural History (1903-1908) and was finally from 1908 to 1937 professor at Harvard University . In 1909 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1912 to the National Academy of Sciences . In 1922 he received their Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal . In 1936 he became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh .
Act
Wheeler had written his doctoral thesis in the field of insect embryology , but quickly became the leading authority on the behavior of social insects, and here again specifically on the behavior of ants; he was particularly interested in the evolution of social behavior in ants. He played a key role in shaping behavioral research as an independent discipline within biology and, in Science in 1902, was the first to make the term ethology known in the English-speaking world .
He was considered a highly competent taxonomist and provided the first description of a vast number of newly discovered species. Two of his publications have long been considered standard works: " Ants: Their Structure, Development, and Behavior " (1910) and " Social Life Among the Insects " (1923).
literature
- Howard Ensign Evans , Mary Alice Evans: William Morton Wheeler, Biologist. iUniverse, Bloomington IN 1999, ISBN 1-58348-312-8 .
Web links
- Short biography on the server of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
- Biographical Memoirs of William Morton Wheeler (1865–1937) Extensive recognition by the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PDF, 1.88 MB)
Individual evidence
- ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 21, 2020 .
- ^ William Morton Wheeler: Natural history, 'oecology' or 'ethology'? In: Science . Volume 15, No. 390, 1902, pp. 971-976, doi: 10.1126 / science.15.390.971
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wheeler, William Morton |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American ethologist, taxonomist, and ant researcher |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 19, 1865 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Milwaukee |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 19, 1937 |
| Place of death | Cambridge, Massachusetts |