Warder Clyde Allee

Warder Clyde Allee
Born	June 5, 1885
Nationality	United States
Fields	Behavioral sciences Zoology
Institutions	University of Florida University of Illinois
Alma mater	Earlham College University of Chicago
Known for	Research on animal behavior, protocooperation, and for identifying the Allee effect

Warder Clyde Allee (June 5, 1885 – March 18, 1955) was an American zoologist and ecologist who taught animal ecology. He is best known for his research on animal behavior, protocooperation, and for identifying the Allee effect.

University career

Allee was born in Bloomingdale, Indiana. He received the S.B. degree from Earlham College in 1908, and the S.M. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago in 1910 and 1912. Allee worked as an Assistant Professor in Zoology from 1910 to 1912. Between 1912 and 1921 he taught at the University of Illinois, Williams College, University of Oklahoma, Lake Forest College, and the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He returned to the University of Chicago in 1921 as an Assistant Professor of Zoology and was promoted to Professor in 1928. In addition, he served as Dean in the College of Arts, Literature, and Science (1924-1926) and Secretary of the Department of Zoology (1927-1934). After retirement in 1950, he worked at the University of Florida at Gainesville, where he was Head Professor of Biology until his death in March 1955.

Involvement in other scientific work

A spinal tumor caused paralysis, and Allee used a wheelchair after 1935. He nevertheless maintained a full schedule of teaching, research and writing. Allee continued to spend summers at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, and served as a trustee from 1932 to 1955. Having been on the editorial board of Physiological Zoology, a journal published by the University of Chicago Press, since its founding in 1928, Allee took over as managing editor in 1937 and remained in that position until his death. He also chaired the Committee on the Ecology of Animal Populations of the National Research Council which was established in 1941 to solicit and administer funds for research projects in the field. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1950.

Publications

Besides articles and research monographs, Allee wrote a number of books, including Animal Aggregations: A Study in General Sociology (1931), Animal Life and Social Growth (1932), The Social Life of Animals (1938), Principles of Animal Ecology, co-authored by Alfred E. Emerson, Orlando Park, Thomas Park, and Karl P. Schmidt (1949), and Cooperation among Animals, with Human Implications (1951).

Commemoration and death

The Animal Behavior Society offers the W.C. Allee Award for the best presentation of an ethological work of research by a student in a juried competition held at their annual meeting.

Allee died in Gainesville, Florida, aged 69, in 1955.

Bibliography

• Allee, W. C. (1931). Animal Aggregations. A study in General Sociology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. ISBN 0-404-14501-9
• Allee, W. C. (1949). Principles of Animal Ecology. W.B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia. ISBN 0-7216-1120-6
• Courchamp, Franck. Luděk Berec and Joanna Gascoigne. (2008). Allee Effects in Ecology and Conservation. Oxford University Press, New York. ISBN 0198570309.
• Emerson, Alfred E. Thomas Park: Warder Clyde Allee: Ecologist and Ethologist. Science vol. 121, No. 3150 (May 13, 1955) , p. 686-687 (obituary)
• Dugatkin, Lee Alan. (2006). The Altruism Equation: Seven Scientists Search for the Origins of Goodness. Princeton University Press, Princeton. ISBN 0691125902
• Mitman, Gregg. The State of Nature: Ecology, Community, and American Social Thought, 1900-1950, Science and Its Conceptual Foundations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. ISBN 9780226532370

See also

• Group selection
• Population density
• Superorganism

External links

• Biographical sketch
• WC Allee Laboratory of Animal Behavior Biopsychological Research Building at the University of Chicago
• Warder Clyde Allee Papers at the University of Chicago Library