Ralph Buchsbaum

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ralph Buchsbaum

Born January 2, 1907
Chickasha, Oklahoma
Died February 11, 2002 (aged 95)
Pacific Grove, California
Nationality American
Fields invertebrate biology, ecology
Institutions University of Chicago
University of Pittsburgh

Ralph Morris Buchsbaum (January 2, 1907 – February 11, 2002) was an American zoologist, invertebrate biologist, and ecologist. His book Animals Without Backbones, written in 1938,[1] was the first textbook in biology to be reviewed by Time and featured in Life,[2] has gone through several revisions,[2][3][4] is still in print,[5] and has been widely used as a textbook.[2][6]

Buchsbaum was born in 1907, in Chickasha, Indian Territory, now part of Oklahoma. He earned his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Chicago in 1932 and continued there as a faculty member until 1950, when he moved to the University of Pittsburgh. He retired in 1972, and died February 11, 2002 in Pacific Grove, California, of heart failure.[7][8]

Due to his 1938 book, Buchsbaum became known as a popularizer of science. In 1952 he founded The Boxwood Press, which published his own and others' science books. He also made a series of 29 educational films on biology for the Encyclopædia Britannica, and visited Thailand, Ecuador, Ghana, and India, where he helped develop educational curricula in biology.[7][8][9]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Review in Time, December 26, 1938.
  2. ^ a b c Clark, Paul F. (1988), “Book reviews: Animals Without Backbones, 3rd ed.”, Journal of Natural History 22: 569, <http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/index/W568527L7720TN65.pdf> .
  3. ^ Lorus, J. & Milne, Margery J. (1949), “Book Reviews: Animals without Backbones”, Science 109 (2834): 415–416, <http://www.jstor.org/view/00368075/ap992834/99a00280/0> .
  4. ^ Book reviews in Quarterly Review of Biology, 1949, by B. Glass, 1977, by G. Hechtel, and 1989, by E.H. Kaplan.
  5. ^ ISBN 978-0226078748. The longevity of this book was noted by Street, W. R. (1994), “Addenda”, A Chronology of Noteworthy Events in American Psychology, Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association , which notes the publication of this book as an important event in the history of psychology.
  6. ^ An advertisement for the 1948 revision of the book in Science states that it was then in use as a text at over 200 colleges and universities. The ad also quotes a review by Carroll Lane Fenton for the American Association for the Advancement of Science calling it "the only book on invertebrates whose illustrations do justice to the subject".
  7. ^ a b Vandevere, Jud (2002), “The Passing of a Wonderful Biologist”, The Otter Raft 66, <http://www.seaotters.org/theraft/index.cfm?DocID=154> .
  8. ^ a b “In Memoriam: Dr. Ralph Morris Buchsbaum”, Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Newsletter, Spring 2002, <http://www.sicb.org/newsletters/nl04-2002/diz.php3> .
  9. ^ "UNESCO Aide in Accra", Washington Post, August 19, 1967. An article about Buchsbaum's arrival in Ghana as director of a UNESCO project there.