John Roger Bray (June 20, 1929 – April 25, 2018) was an American-born ecologist known for his collaboration with

John Thomas Curtis John Thomas Curtis (September 20, 1913 – June 7, 1961) was an American botanist and plant ecologist. He is particularly known for his lasting contribution to the development of numerical methods in ecology. Together with J. Roger Bray, he deve ...

. The

Bray–Curtis dissimilarity In ecology and biology, the Bray–Curtis dissimilarity is a statistic used to quantify the dissimilarity in species composition between two different sites, based on counts at each site. It is named after J. Roger Bray and John T. Curtis who fir ...

is jointly named after them. Bray was born in 1929 to Roger H. Bray, who developed the Bray soil test. A native of

Belleville, Illinois Belleville is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. It is a southeastern suburb of St. Louis. The population was 42,404 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the most populated city in the Me ...

, the younger Bray was raised in

Urbana, Illinois Urbana ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. As of the 2020 census, Urbana had a population of 38,336. It is a principal city of the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, which had 236,000 residents i ...

. Bray completed his bachelor's degree in botany at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

in 1950, after three years of study. Bray began working toward a doctorate under

at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

in August 1950. In 1955, Bray began teaching ecology at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

while working with Don Lawrence. In 1957, Bray joined the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

faculty. With Michael McNamee, Bray founded the Committee of 100 to oppose nuclear bomb testing. Bray resigned from his position at the University of Toronto in 1962, to protest the Canadian government placing nuclear weapons at present-day

Iqaluit Iqaluit is the capital of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. It is the territory's largest community and its only city, and the northernmost city in Canada. It was known as Frobisher Bay from 1942 to 1987, after the large bay on the coast on ...

. Bray married Gwendolyn J. Struik, daughter of mathematicians

Dirk Jan Struik Dirk Jan Struik (September 30, 1894 – October 21, 2000) was a Dutch-born American (since 1934) mathematician, historian of mathematics, and Marxist theoretician who spent most of his life in the U.S. Early life Dirk Jan Struik was born ...

and

Saly Ruth Ramler Saly Ruth Ramler (1894–1993), also known as Saly Ruth Struik, was the first woman to receive a mathematics PhD from the German University in Prague, now known as Charles University. Life and work Her 1919 dissertation, on the axioms of aff ...

, in 1961. Following his resignation from Toronto, Bray and his wife moved to

Kelowna, British Columbia Kelowna ( ) is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. It serves as the head office of the Regional District of Central Okanagan. The name Kelowna derives from the Okanagan word ', ...

. Soon after the

Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis () in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis (), was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of Nuclear weapons d ...

, both relocated to New Zealand in 1963, and began working for the

Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, abbreviated DSIR was the name of several British Empire organisations founded after the 1923 Imperial Conference to foster intra-Empire trade and development. * Department of Scientific and Industria ...

. The couple have three daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bray, J. Roger 1929 births 2018 deaths University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni American ecologists American emigrants to New Zealand American expatriate academics in Canada Academic staff of the University of Toronto American expatriate academics People from Belleville, Illinois People from Urbana, Illinois Scientists from Illinois University of Illinois College of Liberal Arts and Sciences alumni