Murray Fife Buell (October 5, 1905 – July 3, 1975) was an American

ecologist Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

and

palynologist Palynology is the "study of dust" (from grc-gre, παλύνω, palynō, "strew, sprinkle" and '' -logy'') or of "particles that are strewn". A classic palynologist analyses particulate samples collected from the air, from water, or from deposit ...

Personal life

Born in

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

, Buell earned a

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

in 1930. He then attended the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

, where he earned a

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in 1934 and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in 1935. After completing his Ph.D., Buell's studies with W.S. Cooper stimulated his interest in plant ecology. During graduate school, Buell married Helen Foot (Ph. D., Algology, U. Minn.); the Buells raised two children. Helen was his field companion as well as his wife, and the two worked as a team in research and publication of several papers.https://web.archive.org/web/20120216055319/http://www.palynology.org/history/buell.html Biographical Sketch, AASP website Buell began his professional career at North Carolina State University in 1935, where he started his research on

paleoecology Paleoecology (also spelled palaeoecology) is the study of interactions between organisms and/or interactions between organisms and their environments across geologic timescales. As a discipline, paleoecology interacts with, depends on and informs ...

of bogs and

plant succession Ecological succession is the process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time. The time scale can be decades (for example, after a wildfire) or more or less. Bacteria allows for the cycling of nutrients such as ca ...

. From 1947 until his retirement in 1971, Buell taught at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

, where he became professor of botany and served as director of the William Hutcheson Forest. As early as 1955, he and his students studied ecology in relation to land-use management and human impacts, especially in parklands. In 1962, he served as president of the

Ecological Society of America The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a professional organization of ecological scientists. Based in the United States and founded in 1915, ESA publications include peer-reviewed journals, newsletters, fact sheets, and teaching resources. I ...

(ESA), and was given the

Eminent Ecologist Award The Eminent Ecologist Award is prize awarded annually to a senior ecologist in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the science of ecology. The prize is awarded by the Ecological Society of America. According to the statutes, the recipient ...

by the society in 1970. The Murray F. Buell Award was established by ESA in 1977.http://www.esa.org/history/awards.php Eminent Ecologist Award, ESA website Buell died July 3, 1975, while on a field trip to the

New Jersey Pine Barrens The New Jersey Pine Barrens, also known as the Pinelands or simply the Pines, is the largest remaining example of the Atlantic coastal pine barrens ecosystem, stretching across more than seven counties of New Jersey. Two other large, contiguou ...

Career chronology

* 1935 Instructor, Assistant Professor, North Carolina State University * 1937–1959 University of Minnesota Biological Station (summers) * 1946 Assistant Professor, Rutgers University * 1956–1971 Professor in Botany Department, Rutgers University * 1970 Eminent Ecologist Award by the Ecological Society of America

Selected papers

* Buell, M.F. 1939. ''Peat formation in the Carolina Bays''. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 66:483–487. * Buell, M.F. 1945. ''Late Pleistocene forest of southeastern North Carolina''. Torreya 45:117–118. * Buell, M.F. 1970. ''Time of origin of New Jersey Pine Barrens bogs''. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 97:105–108.

Bibliography

The following books were written by Murray F. Buell: * ''Vegetative Key to the Woody Plants of Itasca State Park, Minnesota'' (1968), with Robert L. Cain * ''Vegetation of New Jersey'' (1973), with Beryl Robichaud

References

External links

1970 Eminent Ecologist
ESA website

The Palynological Society (AASP) website
Resolution of Respect
(obituary), ESA website {{DEFAULTSORT:Buell, Murray Fife 1905 births 1975 deaths Cornell University alumni Rutgers University faculty University of Minnesota alumni