C. O. Whitman and the American Society of Zoologists

C. O. Whitman (1842–1910) studied under Louis Agassiz,Anton Dohrn, and Rudolph Leuchart. Under the influence of E.S. Morse, Whitman served as the second professor of zoologyat the University of Tokyo (1880–81). For three yearshe was assistant to Alexander Agassiz at the Museum of ComparativeZoology. Between 1883 and 1886 Whitman was editor of the Departmentof Microscopy for the American Naturalist. He became the firstdirector of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole,serving until 1908, and built that institution into an internationallyfamous center for education and research. He also became firstprofessor of Zoology at the University of Chicago where he remainedfor life. In 1887 he founded the Journal of Morphology, andlater Biological Lectures, and Zoological Bulletin which becamethe Biological Bulletin. His own research was in the fieldsof embryology, heredity, and evolution. In 1890 he, with colleagues,founded the American Morphological Society which became theAmerican Society of Zoologists over a period of 13 years (1901–13)by the union of regional groups. Whitman played a leading rolein the founding and early history of the Society.