Dr Julian Ralph Ford (3 November 1932 – 31 January 1987) was an Australian

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

and

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

. He was born in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

and graduated in chemistry from the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

in 1955. He worked for the

Shell Oil Company Shell USA, Inc. (formerly Shell Oil Company, Inc.) is the United States–based wholly owned subsidiary of Shell plc, a UK-based transnational corporation " oil major" which is among the largest oil companies in the world. Approximately 18,000 ...

until 1960 when he went on to a career of lecturing on chemistry, first at the Perth Technical College and then the

Western Australian Institute of Technology Curtin University (previously Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology) is an Australian public research university based in Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. It is named after John Curtin, Prime Minister ...

. Ford's early ornithological work included a study of

yellow-rumped thornbill The yellow-rumped thornbill (''Acanthiza chrysorrhoa'') is a species of passerine bird from the genus Acanthiza. The genus was once placed in the family Pardalotidae but that family was split and it is now in the family Acanthizidae. There are fo ...

s. Later he focused on the

speciation Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species. The biologist Orator F. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution within ...

of birds in inland Australia, making several expeditions in the course of his research. He also discovered that the wedgebill comprised two separate species, the chirruping and

chiming wedgebill The chiming wedgebill (''Psophodes occidentalis''), sometimes referred to as chiming whipbird, is a species of bird in the family Psophodidae. It is endemic to Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country c ...

s. He was a member of the

Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union The Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), now part of BirdLife Australia, was Australia's largest non-government, non-profit, bird conservation organisation. It was founded in 1901 to promote the study and conservation of the native b ...

(RAOU) and served on its Taxonomic Advisory Committee. He also contributed numerous papers to its journal, the ''

Emu The emu (; ''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is a species of flightless bird endemism, endemic to Australia, where it is the Tallest extant birds, tallest native bird. It is the only extant taxon, extant member of the genus ''Dromaius'' and the ...

''. In 1983 he was awarded a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

by the University of Western Australia for his ornithological studies. Julian Ralph Ford is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of lizard, '' Ctenophorus fordi''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Ford, J. R.", p. 92).

References

Sources

*Davies SJJF (1987). "Obituary. Dr Julian Ford". ''

'' 87: 132. *Robin, Libby (2001). ''The Flight of the Emu: a hundred years of Australian ornithology 1901-2001''. Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Press. *Keast, J. Allen (1990). "In Memoriam: Julian R. Ford, 1932-1987". ''The Auk'' 107: 601. Australian ornithologists Scientists from Perth, Western Australia University of Western Australia alumni 20th-century Australian chemists 1932 births 1987 deaths 20th-century Australian zoologists {{Australia-ornithologist-stub