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Alfred G. Mayer (Alfred Goldsborough Mayor; April 16, 1868 – June 24, 1922) was an American
marine biologist Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many scientific classification, phyla, family (biology), families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others th ...
and
zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...
, whose fascination with medusae (jellyfish) marked a turning point for
biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
. Despite Mayor's interest in the
sea The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...
, his first voyage began during his twenty-fourth year of life. Because of his German 'heritage', " ..e altered it (his last name) to "Mayor" in order to dissociate himself from his Germanic roots".''Seafaring Scientist'' by Lester D. Stephens and Dale R. Calder: published in 2006
/ref> Mayor is also greatly known for his many publications and papers in which he wrote about topics ranging from
physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
to
hunting Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...
and
fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...
.


Education

Mayor was born in
Frederick, Maryland Frederick is a city in and the county seat of Frederick County, Maryland. It is part of the Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area. Frederick has long been an important crossroads, located at the intersection of a major north–south Native ...
, the son of Katherine Duckett (Goldsborough) and Alfred Marshall Mayer. He was of part German descent. Dropping out from school at age sixteen, he began to work in a machinist's shop. To please the request of his father, Alfred enrolled in the Stevens Institute of Technology. After many years of physics-related work in several universities, Mayor left his position to pursue a career in natural history, a great interest of his. Professor Lucian I. Blake, one of Mayor's many mentors and professor of
University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...
, stated that," lfred wassuccessful in Physics,...his true taste and longings were toward natural history." In 1897, he graduated from
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
with a Sc.D.


Career

Mayor's most recognized work originated from his work as a successful marine biologist. He published his first book about jellyfish in 1910 titled ''Medusae of the World'', which documented his many studies of species of jellyfish around the world. In 1907 Mayor founded the Tortugas Laboratory on Garden Key (today
Fort Jefferson National Monument Dry Tortugas National Park is a national park located about west of Key West in the Gulf of Mexico. The park preserves Fort Jefferson and the seven Dry Tortugas islands, the westernmost and most isolated of the Florida Keys. The archipelago's c ...
), maintained by the Carnegie Institution for Science, where each summer marine biologists studied the life of the coral reef. Mayor died on nearby Loggerhead Key, Dry Tortugas, aged 54. With his wife, artist and sculptor
Harriet Randolph Hyatt Mayor Harriet Randolph Hyatt Mayor (1868-1960) was an American artist and sculptor active in the late 19th century. She contributed work to the World's Columbian Exposition, among other exhibitions. Life and career Harriet Randolf Hyatt was born in Sal ...
, Mayor was the father of art historian A. Hyatt Mayor, and the great-grandfather of actress Yeardley Smith.


Works

* ''Rhythmical pulsation in Scyphomedusae'', 1906 * ''Medusae of the World'', 1910


Species named after Mayer

* ''
Ectopleura mayeri ''Ectopleura'' is a genus of hydrozoans in the family Tubulariidae. Species The genus contains the following species: *'' Ectopleura americana'' Peterson, 1990 *'' Ectopleura antarctica'' (Billard, 1914) *'' Ectopleura apicisacciformis'' Xu, H ...
'' Petersen, 1990 * '' Rissoina mayori'' Dall, 1925 * '' Eutiara mayeri'' Bigelow, 1918 * '' Melicertissa mayeri'' Kramp, 1959 * '' Lobonema mayeri'' Light, 1914 * '' Coeloseris mayeri'' Vaughan, 1918 * ''
Porites mayeri ''Porites'' is a genus of stony coral; they are small polyp stony (SPS) corals. They are characterised by a finger-like morphology. Members of this genus have widely spaced calices, a well-developed wall reticulum and are bilaterally symmetric ...
'' Vaughan, 1918 * likely ''
Gadila mayori Gadila may refer to: * MV Gadila, an Anglo Saxon Royal Dutch/Shell oil tankers converted to become a Merchant Aircraft Carrier * ''Gadila'' (mollusc), a tusk shell genus in the family Gadilidae Gadilidae is a family of tusk shells in the order ...
'' Henderson, 1920


References


External links


Alfred Goldsborough Mayer on www.tmbl.gu.se
American entomologists Cnidariologists 1868 births 1922 deaths Stevens Institute of Technology alumni Harvard University alumni Mayer family {{US-entomologist-stub