Chrono-Biographical Sketch: Austin L. Rand

Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists:
Chrono-Biographical Sketches

Rand, Austin Loomer (Canada-United States 1905-1982)
ornithology, mammalogy

Photo courtesy of The Auk.

Austin Rand's solidly productive career included significant successes as an ornithologist, mammalogist, field biologist, museum administrator, and popularizer. In his early years he took part in several famous expeditions to tropical areas; on returning to Canada to work during World War II he turned his attention to the birds and mammals of the western part of that country, producing several monographic treatments. Rand then moved to the Field Museum in Chicago, where he was a curator for over twenty years. Throughout he was publishing a string of systematic revisions and faunal reviews, plus special studies featuring his strong interest in animal behavior. Rand also had a talent for popular exposition, authoring a weekly column for several years and writing a number of entertaining, observation-filled, general audience-oriented books.

Life Chronology

--born in Kentville, Nova Scotia, on 16 December 1905.
--1927: B.S., Acadia University
--1927-1929, 1931-1932: assistant ornithologist, Cornell University
--1929-1931: assistant on zoological expedition to Madagascar
--1932: Ph.D., Cornell University
--1933-1939: participates in three American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) expeditions to New Guinea
--1935-1942: research associate, department of ornithology, AMNH
--1936: publishes "The Distribution and Habits of Madagascar Birds" in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History
--1942-1947: assistant zoologist, National Museums of Canada, Ottawa; ornithology editor of Canadian Field-Naturalist
--1945: publishes his Mammals of Yukon, Canada
--1947-1955: curator of birds, Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH)
--1948: publishes his Mammals of the Eastern Rockies and Western Plains of Canada
--1950-1970: member of the International Ornithological Committee
--1954: publishes "Social Feeding Behavior of Birds" in Fieldiana: Zoology
--1955: publishes his Stray Feathers from a Bird Man's Desk
--1955-1970: chief curator of zoology, FMNH
--1956: publishes his American Water & Game Birds
--1962-1964: president, American Ornithologists' Union
--1967: publishes his Ornithology, An Introduction
--1967: publishes his Handbook of New Guinea Birds, with E. T. Gilliard
--1971: publishes his Birds of North America
--1971-1982: research associate, Archbold Biological Station
--dies at Lake Placid, Florida, on 6 November 1982.

For Additional Information, See:

--Biographical Dictionary of American and Canadian Naturalists and Environmentalists (1997).
--The Auk, Vol. 101(3) (1984): 600-602.
--Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series, Vol. 73 (1999).

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