William Morton Wheeler, Biologist

by Mary Alice Evans, Howard Ensign Evans

William Morton Wheeler, (1865-1937), a man of extraordinary learning in many fields and a brilliant writer and lecturer, is a significant figure in the history of biology. His studies of social insects, especially ants, contributed greatly to the biological sciences, but his interests and acquaintances ranged far beyond that one limited aspect of biology.

In this volume the Evans combine a well-written biography with Wheeler's important contribution to the history of biology. Their study begins with Wheeler's boyhood in Milwaukee and his year at Ward's Natural Science Establishment in Rochester. His activities as a graduate student at Clark University and his early teaching at the Universities of Chicago and Texas enable them to present an inside view of the formative years of those institutions, as does his involvement with the founding of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole and the Barro Colorado Laboratory in Panama.

363 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970