George Van Dyne (1933–1981) was a pioneer of

systems ecology Systems ecology is an interdisciplinary field of ecology, a subset of Earth system science, that takes a holism, holistic approach to the study of ecological systems, especially ecosystems. Systems ecology can be seen as an application of general ...

and served as the first director of the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory in the United States.

Early career

Van Dyne was brought up on a ranch at

Trinidad, Colorado Trinidad is the home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Las Animas County, Colorado, United States. The population was 8,329 as of the 2020 census. Trinidad lies north of Raton, New Mexico, and s ...

, not far from the New Mexican border. Having developed skills as a

horseman Horseman or The Horsemen or ''variation'', may refer to: People *Horseman, a person who practices equestrianism Occupations *Wrangler (profession), in the United States *Stockman (Australia), who works with horses rather than with cattle or shee ...

and an interest in the American West, he studied

animal science Animal science is described as "studying the biology of animals that are under the control of humankind". It can also be described as the production and management of farm animals. Historically, the degree was called animal husbandry and the ...

at the

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

. He followed this with a master's degree in range science at

Dakota State University Dakota State University (DSU) is a public university in Madison, South Dakota. The school was founded in 1881 as a normal school, or teacher training school. Education is still the university's heritage mission, but a signature mission of tech ...

. He then gained his PhD from the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

developing mathematical models for the ecosystem of rangeland. He then went to work at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he led the Environmental Sciences Section. He joined Jerry S. Olson and

Bernard Pattern Bernard (''Bernhard'') is a French and West Germanic masculine given name. It is also a surname. The name is attested from at least the 9th century. West Germanic ''Bernhard'' is composed from the two elements ''bern'' "bear" and ''hard'' "brave ...

in delivering the first Systems Ecology course at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

Scientific recognition

According to soviet geographer

Viktor Sochava The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...

, the most advanced geosystems modeling was made by George Van Dyne at desert-steep territories of Colorado. His researches were presented by V. Sochava in 1970 at the meeting of

All-Union Geographical Society The Russian Geographical Society (russian: Ру́сское географи́ческое о́бщество «РГО»), or RGO, is a learned society based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It promotes geography, exploration and nature protection wi ...

.Sobisevich A. V., Snytko V. A., Postnikov A. V
The surrounding environment monitoring in the Soviet Union: a review of establishing new "ecological" science
// IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. 2019. Vol. 350. # 1. P. 1–6. However, from that time Van Dyne's works were well known only at the Institute of Geography at the Siberian branch of Soviet Academy of Sciences in

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and mn, Эрхүү, ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 617,473 as of the 2010 Census, Irkutsk is ...

, which Van Dyne visited by Sochava's invitation. Only after his death, Van Dyne was understood in the Soviet Union as one of the most sophisticated western ecologists and his works were used as an example at the scientific council about biosphere problems at

Soviet Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Dyne, George 1933 births 1981 deaths American ecologists Systems ecologists American systems scientists