William Skinner Cooper (25 August 1884 – 8 October 1978) was an American ecologist. Cooper received his B.S. in 1906 from

Alma College Alma College is a private liberal arts college in Alma, Michigan. It enrolls approximately 1,400 students and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Alma College is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and offers bachelor ...

in Michigan. In 1909, he entered graduate school at the

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

, where he studied with

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 Nort ...

, and completed his Ph.D. in 1911. His first major publication, "The Climax Forest of Isle Royale, Lake Superior, and Its Development" appeared in 1913. Cooper served briefly in 1914-1915 as a lecturer in plant ecology at Stanford University before beginning his long career in the botany department at the University of Minnesota, where he taught from 1915 to 1951. Among his students at Minnesota were Henry J. Oosting, Murray Fife Buell, Rexford Daubenmire,

Frank Edwin Egler Frank Edwin Egler (April 26, 1911 – December 26, 1996) was an American plant ecologist and pioneer in the study of vegetation science. In addition to his groundbreaking research, he assisted Rachel Carson in preparing ''Silent Spring''. Early l ...

and Arnold M. Schultz; the latter went on to teach "Ecosystemology" at U.C. Berkeley, and received U.C. Berkeley's "Distinguished Teaching Award" in 1992. Cooper was the 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 ...

in 1936 and the president of the Minnesota Academy of Science in 1937. Other professional accolades included receipt of the Botanical Society of America's Merit Award in 1956 and 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 ...

from the Ecological Society of America in 1963. Cooper's travels in

Glacier Bay Glacier Bay Basin in southeastern Alaska, in the United States, encompasses the Glacier Bay and surrounding mountains and glaciers, which was first proclaimed a U.S. National Monument on February 25, 1925, and which was later, on December 2, 1980 ...

, Alaska, compelled him to lead scientists in nominating it as a national park or monument. He also established the oldest permanent plot network in post-glacial areas in the world in 1916 in the Glacier Bay basin, now maintained by Brian Buma at the University of Colorado.Buma, B., et al. 2017. A foundation of ecology rediscovered: 100 years of succession on the William S. Cooper plots in Glacier Bay, Alaska," "Ecology", 98(6): 1513-1523 At the Ecological Society of America's 1922 meeting, Cooper headed a committee that drafted a resolution adopted by the organization and sent to President Calvin Coolidge asking him to name the bay a monument. His 1935 monograph on the late glacial and postglacial environment of the Glacier Bay Basin is considered a classic. Mount Cooper in Glacier Bay is named in his honor. The

recognizes Cooper's work in the discipline by bestowing its annual William Skinner Cooper Award on scientists who produce outstanding publications on geobotany, physiographic ecology, plant succession, or the distribution of plants along environmental gradients.

References

Selected works

*William S. Cooper
"The Climax Forest of Isle Royale, Lake Superior, and Its Development. I,"
''Botanical Gazette'' 55 (1913): 1-44
Part II, 115–140Part III, 189–235
*William Skinner Cooper
"The Recent Ecological History of Glacier Bay, Alaska"
''Ecology '' 4 (1923): 93-128. *William Skinner Cooper, ''The History of the Upper Mississippi River in Late Wisconsin and Postglacial Time'' (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1935).

External links

* http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/chronob/COOP1884.htm
List of W S Cooper Award recipients

Paper on Cooper plots rediscovery in 2016
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, William Skinner 1894 births 1978 deaths American botanists Alma College alumni University of Chicago alumni Stanford University Department of Biology faculty University of Minnesota faculty