Gary Nathan Calkins (18 January 1869 – 4 January 1943) was an American

protozoologist Protistology is a scientific discipline devoted to the study of protists, a highly diverse group of eukaryotic organisms. All eukaryotes apart from animals, plants and fungi are considered protists. Its field of study therefore overlaps with the ...

and a professor at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. He wrote several landmark textbooks on the biology of the protozoa. He described conjugation in '' Paramoecium'' and in his taxonomic approach separated chlorophyll containing flagellates from other protists. Calkins was born in

Valparaiso, Indiana Valparaiso ( ), colloquially Valpo, is a city in and the county seat of Porter County, Indiana, United States. The population was 34,151 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area. History The site of present-day Valparaiso ...

to John Wesley Calkins and Emma Frisbie Smith He graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1890 and taught for a while. He worked briefly at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, and then continued further studies at

and obtained a Ph.D. in 1897. His influences at Columbia included

Henry Fairfield Osborn Henry Fairfield Osborn, Sr. (August 8, 1857 – November 6, 1935) was an American paleontologist, geologist and eugenics advocate. He was professor of anatomy at Columbia University, president of the American Museum of Natural History for 25 y ...

. He rose to professor of zoology in 1904 which was later renamed as professor of protozoology. He worked at Columbia University for most of his life retiring as an emeritus professor in 1939. He also took an interest in statistics and worked as a consultant in cancer research with the New York State Department of Health from 1902 to 1908. His major books were ''The Protozoa'' (1901) and ''The Biology of the Protozoa'' (1926). One of his most important works was in the study of protistan life-histories and the description of conjugation. Calkins was elected to the United States

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

in 1919 and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1920. He is honoured in the name of ''

Calkinsia ''Calkinsia'' is a monotypic genus of excavates comprising the single species ''Calkinsia aurea''. It lives in low-oxygen seafloor environments. It is not classified in any of the three well-known groups of the Euglenozoa (Kinetoplastida, Eugle ...

'' which is a

monotypic genus In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

of excavates comprising the single species ''Calkinsia aureus''.

References

External links

The biology of the Protozoa
(1926)
Biology
(1917)
The Protozoa
(1901)

Portrait, Smithsonian ArchivesEmbryo Project Encyclopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Calkins, Gary Nathan 1869 births 1943 deaths American microbiologists Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Columbia University alumni Columbia University faculty Members of the American Philosophical Society