Alfred Emerson
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Alfred Edwards Emerson, Jr. (December 31, 1896 – October 3, 1976) was an American
biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual cell, a multicellular organism, or a community of interacting populations. They usually specialize in ...
, Professor of Zoology at the University of Chicago, a noted
entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...
and leading authority on termites.


Life and work

Emerson was born in Ithaca, New York. His father, Alfred Emerson, Sr. was an
archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
and professor at Cornell University, and his mother Alice Edwards Emerson a concert pianist. His grandfather was a Presbyterian pastor. Of his three older siblings, his sister Edith Emerson became an artist and museum curator, and another sister
Gertrude Emerson Sen Gertrude Emerson Sen (6 May 1890 – 1982) was an early 20th-century expert on Asia and a founding member of the Society of Woman Geographers. Early life and education Gertrude Emerson was the daughter of Alfred Emerson, Sr., and Alice Edwards ...
became the editor of '' Asia'' magazine in India. He took an interest in music in early life and while at the Interlaken School in Rolling Prairie, Indiana from 1910 to 1914 he started the school poultry farm. He then went to Cornell University to study poultry science but majored in entomology where he was taught by the Comstocks. One of his classmates was
Karl P. Schmidt Karl Patterson Schmidt (June 19, 1890  – September 26, 1957) was an American herpetologist. Family Schmidt was the son of George W. Schmidt and Margaret Patterson Schmidt. George W. Schmidt was a German professor, who, at the time of Karl ...
, the herpetologist. It was Cornell that Emerson met Winifred Jelliffe, daughter of a well-known psychiatrist. They got engaged in 1918, just before Emerson was drafted for nine months in the army. On a suggestion from William Beebe, he visited the research station of the New York Zoological Society at Kartabo in British Guiana and began examining termites, an area that he studied throughout his life. He married and made more trips to Kartabo. In 1921, he joined the University of Pittsburgh as an instructor. He obtained a PhD from Cornell in 1925 with a Guggenheim Fellowship. From 1929 to 1962 he was Professor of Zoology at the University of Chicago. In 1935 he visited the Barro Colorado Island. From 1940 to 1976 was Research Associate of the
American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...
. In 1941 he served as President of the Ecological Society of America, and in 1958 as President of the Society of Systematic Zoology. Emerson and Winifred had a daughter, Helena, who became a professor of sociology, and a son William Jelliffe who worked on anatomy at the University of California. Winifred died in 1949 after which he married Eleanor Fish, with whom he had written a children's book ''Termite City'' (1937). Emerson's collection of termites was donated to the
American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...
and contained about a million specimens of about 1745 species of termites. In a posthumous biography of Emerson,
Wilson Wilson may refer to: People * Wilson (name) ** List of people with given name Wilson ** List of people with surname Wilson * Wilson (footballer, 1927–1998), Brazilian manager and defender * Wilson (footballer, born 1984), full name Wilson Ro ...
and Michener (1982) stated: :"''Until his death he was the leading authority on termites, a restless technical expert who contributed massively to their classification, anatomy, and biogeography. He was also an important contributor to modern ecology, one of the synthesizers of 1940s and 1950's who brought the large quantities of new data on adaptation, physiology, behavior, and distribution into line with the emerging principles.''" Through his sister who lived in India, Emerson became a friend of the Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi and also collaborated with termite specialists at the
Zoological Survey of India The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), founded on 1 July 1916 by Government of India Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, as premier Indian organisation in zoological research and studies to promote the survey, exploration and r ...
in Calcutta.


Honors

Emerson was elected in 1926 a fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
and in 1937 a fellow of the
Entomological Society of America The Entomological Society of America (ESA) was founded in 1889 and today has more than 7,000 members, including educators, extension personnel, consultants, students, researchers, and scientists from agricultural departments, health agencies, ...
.


Publications

* 1925. ''Termites of the Belgian Congo and the Cameroon'' * 1938. ''Termite nests--a study of the phylogeny of behavior'' * 1939. "Social Coordination and the Superorganism" in: ''American Midland Naturalist''. Vol. 21, No. 1 (Jan., 1939), pp. 182–209 * 1949. ''Principles of animal ecology''. With W.C. Alice, O. Park, T. Park, and K.P. Schmidt. Philadelphia : Saunders.


References


External links


Dr. Alfred E. Emerson
at amnh.org
Alfred E. Emerson biography
National Academy of Sciences
Guide to the Alfred E. Emerson Papers 1917-1976
at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Emerson, Alfred E 1896 births 1976 deaths Cornell University alumni University of Chicago faculty People associated with the American Museum of Natural History American entomologists 20th-century American zoologists Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the Entomological Society of America