Howard Harold Seliger (4 December 1924, New York City – 20 December 2012) was a physicist, biochemist, and biology professor, known for his research on

bioluminescence Bioluminescence is the emission of light during a chemiluminescence reaction by living organisms. Bioluminescence occurs in multifarious organisms ranging from marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in some Fungus, fungi, microorgani ...

Biography

Seliger graduated from

Townsend Harris High School Townsend Harris High School (THHS; often also shortened to Townsend Harris or simply Townsend) is a public high school for the humanities in the New York City borough of Queens. It is located on the campus of Queens College, a public college p ...

in 1939 and from the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

in 1943). After serving in the U.S. Air Force from 1943 to 1946, he studied physics at

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

and graduated there with M.S. in 1948. From 1948 to 1958 he was a senior physicist in the Radioactivity Division of the

National Bureau of Standards The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sc ...

(NBS) and was enrolled part-time at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

. He graduated there with Ph.D. in 1954. At the NBS he developed a highly sensitive method of measurement of photons produced by radioactive emissions. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1958. With the aid of a recommendation by W. F. Libby, Seliger became a Guggenheim Fellow for the academic year 1958–1959, which he spent in the biology department of Johns Hopkins University. There he worked with William D. McElroy, who had recently isolated the enzyme

luciferase Luciferase is a generic term for the class of oxidative enzymes that produce bioluminescence, and is usually distinguished from a photoprotein. The name was first used by Raphaël Dubois who invented the words ''luciferin'' and ''luciferase'' ...

. Seliger used his measurement techniques for photon scintillation to make the first measurement of the quantum yield of the firefly light reaction. This was the beginning of his outstanding achievements in the study of bioluminescence in fireflies, bacteria,

phytoplankton Phytoplankton () are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater Aquatic ecosystem, ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek language, Greek words (), meaning 'plant', and (), mea ...

, fish, and

ctenophore Ctenophora (; : ctenophore ) is a phylum of marine invertebrates, commonly known as comb jellies, that inhabit sea waters worldwide. They are notable for the groups of cilia they use for swimming (commonly referred to as "combs"), and they ar ...

s. Seliger, as part of a team of Johns Hopkins scientists, studied more than 100 different species of fireflies in Maryland and on the island of Jamaica. He built an instrument, called by him a "firefly gun," which his team used in making the first measurements of the specific flash patterns of various firefly species in their natural habitat. Their research "showed that the species-specific colors of the bioluminescence of fireflies represented natural selection for the optimization of the ratio of light signals to interfering ambient light intensities (noise) at the times of their emergence." Seliger was the president of the

American Society for Photobiology The American Society for Photobiology (ASP) is a scientific society for the promotion of research in photobiology, integration of different photobiology disciplines, dissemination of photobiology knowledge, and provides information on photobiologica ...

in 1980–1981. Until he was 75 years old, he taught and did research at Johns Hopkins University. He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1997. He was married for 69 years to the former Beatrice Semel (born in 1926). Upon his death at the age of 88, he was survived by his widow, two daughters, two grandsons, and a great-grandson.

Selected publications

Articles

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Books

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seliger, Howard Harold 1924 births 2012 deaths 20th-century American physicists 21st-century American physicists 20th-century American biologists 21st-century American biologists Townsend Harris High School alumni City College of New York alumni Purdue University alumni University System of Maryland alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the American Physical Society