William Ryan Dawson (24 August 1927 – 8 March 2020) was an American

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 ...

and

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

and emeritus professor of zoology at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. He is known in the field of ornithology for his comparative studies on desert and closely related non-desert birds in the south-western

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Early life and education

He was born in Los Angeles and graduated from the

University of California at Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

in 1949, was awarded Master of Arts in 1950 and a Ph.D. in 1953. He was later awarded Doctor of Science by the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

in 1971.

Career

He joined the faculty of zoology at the

, Ann Arbor, where he worked from 1953 to 1994, being appointed professor in 1962 and D.E.S. Brown Professor of Biological Science in 1981. He was also director of the Museum of Zoology at the university from 1982 to 1993. He was emeritus professor at Michigan from 1994 onwards. He was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 1963. He took part in a number of expeditions, including the R/V ''Alpha Helix'' New Guinea Expedition in 1969, the R/V ''Dolphin'' Gulf of California Expedition in 1976 and the R/V ''Alpha Helix'' Galapagos Expedition of 1978. As a keen ornithologist he was a member of the

American Ornithological Union The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...

and the

Cooper Ornithological Society The Cooper Ornithological Society (COS), formerly the Cooper Ornithological Club, was an American ornithological society. It was founded in 1893 in California and operated until 2016. Its name commemorated James Graham Cooper, an early California b ...

. He was the 1996 recipient of the

’s

Loye and Alden Miller Research Award The Loye and Alden Miller Research Award, now known as the AOS Miller Award, was established in 1993 by the Cooper Ornithological Society (COS) to recognize lifetime achievement in ornithological research. The namesakes were Loye H. Miller and his s ...

, which is given in recognition of lifetime achievement in ornithological research.Loye and Alden Miller Research Award, Cooper Ornithological Society
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References

1927 births 2020 deaths People from Los Angeles American ornithologists University of Michigan faculty University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of Western Australia alumni American expatriates in Australia {{US-ornithologist-stub