Masaaki Morisita

Masaaki Morisita
森下正明
Morisita in 1949
Born	(1913-01-27)January 27, 1913 Osaka, Japan
Died	February 25, 1997(1997-02-25) (aged 84) Kyoto, Japan
Alma mater	Kyoto University
Scientific career
Fields	Ecology Zoology
Institutions	Kyoto University

Masaaki Morisita (森下正明光) was a Japanese ecologist and professor emeritus of animal ecology at Kyoto University. He was the father of population ecology in Japan. Morisita's overlap index and Morisita's index of dispersion are named after him.

In addition to his work on statistical ecology, he also studied the natural history of Japanese ants. With several other myrmecologists, he produced a complete catalogue of ants in Japan. Three species of ants are named after him (Pyramica morisitai, Proceratium morisitai , and Lasius morisitai).

Biography

Morisita was born in Osaka and spent his high school years in Kōchi. He obtained a bachelor's of agriculture at Kyoto University in 1932, and later a doctorate of science in 1950. After graduating, he worked as a professor in the department of biology at Kyushu University. He later became a professor in the zoology department of Kyoto University.

He published the book Studies on Methods of Estimating Population Density, Biomass, and Productivity in Terrestrial Animals in 1977.

He was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd Class in 1986. After his death, the Morisita Memorial & Research Foundation was named in his honor.

Name

Like many academics from Kyoto University, Morisita had a preference for the spelling of his name in foreign language papers, writing it as "Morisita" in the Kunrei-shiki romanization, rather than the English-based Hepburn romanization "Morishita".