George Burton Rigg (February 9, 1872,

Harrison County, Iowa Harrison County is a county located in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,582. The county seat is Logan. The county was formed in 1851. It was named for ninth US President William Henry Harrison. Harrison Coun ...

– July 10, 1961) was an American botanist and ecologist, specializing in sphagnum bogs. In 1956 he received the Eminent Ecologist Award from the Ecological Society of America.

Education and career

George B. Rigg grew up on a farm near

Woodbine, Iowa Woodbine is a city in Harrison County, Iowa, United States, along the Boyer River. The population was 1,625 at the time of the 2020 census. History Woodbine was platted 1866 at the time the Chicago and North Western Railway was built through th ...

and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1896 from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

. In 1907 he went to Washington state's

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

area, where he became a high school teacher. In 1909 he graduated with a master's degree in botany and become an instructor at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

. There he spent his academic career and was chair of the department of botany from 1940 to 1942. He taught for thirteen summers at the University of Washington's

Friday Harbor Laboratories Friday Harbor Laboratories (FHL), is a marine biology field station of the University of Washington, located in Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, Washington, United States. Friday Harbor Labs is known for its intensive summer classes offered to co ...

and also did some summer teaching at the University of Iowa and the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

. At the University of Chicago, he received his Ph.D. in botany in 1914 and learned from

Henry Chandler Cowles Henry Chandler Cowles (February 27, 1869 – September 12, 1939) was an American botanist and ecological pioneer (see History of ecology). A professor at the University of Chicago, he studied ecological succession in the Indiana Dunes of Northwes ...

and the plant physiologist William Crocker (1876–1950). Rigg's ecological research dealt mostly with peat bogs and marine algae. In 1913 he went to the coast of southwestern Alaska to investigate the effects on kelp of the pumice and volcanic ash produced by the 1912 eruption of Mount Katmai. Rigg and the geoscientist Howard Ross Gould investigated Glacier Peak's volcanic ash deposits in peat bogs in Washington state and nearby areas. Rigg's doctoral students include Henry Paul Hansen.

Selected publications

Articles

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Books

*with

Theodore Christian Frye Theodore Christian Frye (September 15, 1869, Washington, Illinois – April 5, 1962, Seattle) was an American botany professor and one of the world's leading experts on bryology. Biography Born on a farm near Washington, Illinois, Theodore C. Frye ...

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rigg, George Burton American botanists American ecologists People from Harrison County, Iowa University of Iowa alumni University of Washington alumni University of Chicago alumni University of Washington faculty 1872 births 1961 deaths