Chrono-Biographical Sketch: Frederick E. J. Fry

Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists:
Chrono-Biographical Sketches

Fry, Frederick Ernest Joseph (England-Canada 1908-1989)
physiology, ecology, limnology, fisheries science

Photo courtesy of the American Fisheries Society.

Fry is most remembered for his development of virtual population analysis, one of the most important techniques of fisheries management. For nearly forty years he was associated with the University of Toronto, where he was known as an outstanding teacher and developed an enviable reputation as a physiological ecologist. His 1947 monograph Effects of the Environment on Animal Activity, which advocated a movement away from taxonomy and form and toward a systems understanding of physiology as related to environment, is a major classic in the twentieth century literature of ecology. Fry was involved in a large number of collaborative research programs and supervised the education of forty-seven graduate students.

Life Chronology

--born in Woking, Surrey, England, on 17 April 1908.
--1933: B.A. in biology, University of Toronto
--1936: Ph.D., University of Toronto
--1938: hired as lecturer at the University of Toronto
--1941-1945: research in aviation medicine for the Royal Canadian Air Force
--1944: made Member, Order of the British Empire (MBE)
--1945: made assistant professor of zoology, University of Toronto
--1947: publishes his Effects of the Environment on Animal Activity
--1948: elected to the Royal Society of Canada
--1950: receives citation from the Wildlife Society
--1951: president, American Society of Limnology and Oceanography
--1955, 1967: visiting professor, University of Hawaii
--1956-1974: professor of zoology, University of Toronto
--1957: publishes "The Aquatic Respiration of Fish" in Volume One of The Physiology of Fishes
--1959: Guggenheim fellow
--1962: receives the Flavelle medal of the Royal Society of Canada
--1964: made a member of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada
--1966: president, American Fisheries Society; president, Canadian Society of Zoologists
--1971: publishes "The Effect of Environmental Factors on the Physiology of Fish" in Volume Six of Fish Physiology
--1972: president, American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists
--1974: Canadian Society of Zoologists establishes the Fry Medal in honor of his contributions to Canadian science; made professor emeritus at the University of Toronto
--dies on 22 May 1989.

For Additional Information, See:

--Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, Vol. 119(4) (1990): 567-584.
--Environmental Biology of Fishes, Vol. 27(4) (1990): 241-242.
--Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, Vol. 33(2) (1976): 340-344.

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