Elmer Ray Noble, (16 January 1909 – 8 March 2001) was professor of zoology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an internationally recognized protozoologist and parasitologist. Noble was born in Pyongyang, Korea, to American Methodist missionary parents,

William Arthur Noble William Arthur Noble (September 13, 1866 – January 6, 1945), who published under the name W. Arthur Noble, was an American missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Pyongyang, Korea and Seoul, Korea from 1892 to 1934. Biography Nob ...

and

Mattie Wilcox Noble Mattie may refer to: * Mattie (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Mattie, Piedmont, Italy, a municipality * Mattie, West Virginia, United States, a ghost town * Grace Bailey (schooner), ''Grace Baile ...

. He lived with his family in Korea until 1927, when he and his identical twin brother,

Glenn Arthur Noble Glenn may refer to: Name or surname * Glenn (name) * John Glenn, U.S. astronaut Cultivars * Glenn (mango) * a 6-row barley variety Places In the United States: * Glenn, California * Glenn County, California * Glenn, Georgia, a settlement i ...

, moved to the United States to attend the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a B.A. in zoology, an M.A. in zoology, and a Ph.D. in protozoology and parasitology. Noble joined the UC Santa Barbara faculty in 1936, where he worked for 38 years before retiring in 1974. At UC Santa Barbara, he was, in turn; Chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, Dean of Liberal Arts, Acting Provost, Acting Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, and Vice Chancellor for Graduate Affairs. He held administrative offices in the following professional societies: *President, Society of Southern California Parasitologists *Vice-President, American Microscopical Society *President, Society of Protozoologists *President,

American Society of Parasitologists Founded in 1924, the ''American Society of Parasitologists'' comprises a diverse group of about 700 scientists from academia, industry, and government involved in the study and teaching of the scientific discipline of parasitology.American Society ...

In 1971, Noble and his twin co-authored: PARASITOLOGY. The Biology of Animal Parasites. Elmer R. Noble and Glenn A. Noble. Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia. In 1978, the former Biological Sciences Building at Santa Barbara was renamed Elmer Ray Noble Hall in his honor. In addition to his teaching and research, he is remembered for the first description of the pathogenic

myxosporea Myxosporea is a class of microscopic parasites, belonging to the Myxozoa clade within Cnidaria. They have a complex life cycle which comprises vegetative forms in two hosts, an aquatic invertebrate (generally an annelid but sometimes a bryozoan) ...

n, ''

Ceratomyxa shasta ''Ceratonova shasta'' (syn. ''Ceratomyxa shasta'') is a myxosporean parasite that infects salmonid fish on the Pacific coast of North America. It was first observed at the Crystal Lake Hatchery, Shasta County, California, and has now been reporte ...

''. His contributions to this field have also been recognized with the

patronym A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. Patronymics are still in use, including mandatory use, in many countries worldwide, alt ...

y of two species of myxozoan, ''Myxidium noblei'' Zubchenko & Krasin, 1980 and ''Myxobolus noblei'' (Sarkar, 1982). According to both the International Plant Names Index and the Harvard Herbarium, Noble was also a botanist.

References

1909 births 2001 deaths University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, Santa Barbara faculty American parasitologists American botanists Identical twins American twins Presidents of the American Society of Parasitologists {{US-biologist-stub