Stanley Adair Cain (19 June 1902,
Deputy, Indiana
Deputy is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Graham Township, Jefferson County, Indiana, Graham Township, Jefferson County, Indiana, Jefferson County, Indiana, United States. By road ...
– 1 April 1995,
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz (Spanish language, Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the largest city and the county seat of Santa Cruz County, California, Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city population ...
) was a botanist and pioneer of plant ecology and environmental studies.
Biography
Cain graduated from
Butler University
Butler University is a private university in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university has over 60 major academic fields of study within six colleges in the arts, business, communic ...
with B.S. in 1924 and from the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
with M.S. in 1927 and with PhD in 1930. His doctoral dissertation on the
heath
A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...
balds of the
Great Smoky Mountains
The Great Smoky Mountains (, ''Equa Dutsusdu Dodalv'') are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains and form part of the Blue Ridg ...
was based upon field work in 1929 and 1930. His doctoral advisor was George D. Fuller (1869–1961).
At Butler University's department of botany, Cain was an instructor from 1924 to 1927, an assistant professor from 1927 to 1930, and an associate professor from 1930 to 1931. At Indiana University, he was an assistant professor of botany from 1931 to 1933 and a research associate in the Waterman Institute from 1933 to 1935.
[ Cain was a plant sociologist, during the summers from 1935 to 1938 at ]Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is a private, non-profit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neuroscience, botany, genomics, and quantitative biology. It is located in Laurel Hollow, New York, in Nassau County, on ...
.[ He was an associate professor from 1935 to 1946 at the ]University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (or The University of Tennessee; UT; UT Knoxville; or colloquially UTK or Tennessee) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee, United St ...
. There he had a year's leave of absence as a Guggenheim Fellow
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated d ...
for the academic year 1940–1941 when he worked on his treatise ''Foundations of Plant Geography''.[ In 1945 Cain was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army and served as chief of the scientific section of the American Army University in ]Biarritz
Biarritz ( , , , ; also spelled ; ) is a city on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the French Basque Country in southwestern France. It is located from the border with Spain. It is a luxu ...
in the French Basque Country
The French Basque Country (; ; ), or Northern Basque Country (, or , ), is a region lying on the west of the French department of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Since 1 January 2017, it constitutes the Basque Municipal Community (; ) presided ...
.[
From 1946 to 1950 Cain was a research associate at the ]Cranbrook Institute of Science
The Cranbrook Educational Community is an education, research, and public museum complex in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. This National Historic Landmark was founded in the early 20th century by newspaper mogul George Gough Booth. It consists of ...
in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Bloomfield Hills is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A northern Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit on the Woodward Corridor, Bloomfield Hills is located roughly northwest of downtown Detroit, and is ...
. In 1950 Samuel Trask Dana appointed him to the Charles Lathrop Pack
Charles Lathrop Pack (May 7, 1857 – June 14, 1937), a third-generation timberman, was "one of the five wealthiest men in America prior to World War I".Eyle, p. xv
His financial success was built on the success of his father, George Willis Pa ...
Professorship of Conservation in the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources. Cain established the Department of Conversation in the School of Natural Resources and served as the Department's chair from 1950 to 1961. In 1950 he was simultaneously appointed a full professor in the University of Michigan's Department of Botany. For the academic year 1955–1956 he was a member of the U.N. Technical Assistance Mission to Brazil, where he collaborated with Dr. G. M. de Oliveira Castro, a specialist in tropical medicine, in preparing their ''Manual of Vegetation Analysis'' (1959).[ The purpose of the U.N. Mission was to study rainforest vegetation in order to provide information for mosquito control in Brazil's efforts to prevent malaria. From 1965 to 1968 Cain was on leave of absence so that he could serve as Assistant Secretary of the Interior in the Johnson Administration. At the University of Michigan he resumed his academic duties in 1968 and retired in 1972. After retiring from the University of University of Michigan, he became an adjunct professor at the University of Santa Cruz.][
He was the author or co-author of over 100 articles in scientific journals, including ]Botanical Gazette
The ''International Journal of Plant Sciences'' covers botanical research including genetics and genomics, developmental and cell biology, biochemistry and physiology, morphology and structure, systematics, plant-microbe interactions, paleobotany, ...
, Ecological Monographs
The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a professional organization of ecological scientists. Based in the United States and founded in 1915, ESA publications include peer-reviewed journals, newsletters, fact sheets, and teaching resources. I ...
, American Midland Naturalist
''The American Midland Naturalist'' was a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering natural history. It was established in 1909 by Julius Nieuwland and was published by the University of Notre Dame. According to the ''Journal Citation Re ...
, Ecology, The Bryologist
''The Bryologist'' is a peer reviewed scientific journal specializing in bryology. It is published quarterly by the American Bryological and Lichenological Society (ABLS). It began as a department of '' The Fern Bulletin'' devoted to the study o ...
, Castanea
The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
Description
C ...
, and American Journal of Botany
The ''American Journal of Botany'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal which covers all aspects of plant biology. It has been published by the Botanical Society of America since 1914. The journal has an impact factor of 3.038, as of 20 ...
. He contributed the article ''Archidiaceae'' to Grout
Grout is a dense substance that flows like a liquid yet hardens upon application, often used to fill gaps or to function as reinforcement in existing structures. Grout is generally a mixture of water, cement, and sand, and is frequently employe ...
's ''Moss flora of North America, north of Mexico'', vol. 1 (1928).
In 1940 Cain married Louise Gilbert (1911–1993). Cain, an experienced administrator, worked with Jean Campbell and Jane Likert to create the University of Michigan's Center for Continuing Education of Women. Their son Stephen Cain had a long, distinguished career as an newspaper reporter and editor in Michigan.
Awards and honors
* 1940 – Guggenheim Fellow
* 1958 – president of the Ecological Society of America
The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a professional organization of ecological scientists. Based in the United States and founded in 1915, ESA publications include peer-reviewed journals, newsletters, fact sheets, and teaching resources. I ...
* 1959 – honorary doctorate, University of Montreal
* 1965 – Michigan Conservationist of the Year
* 1969 – Eminent Ecologist Award, Ecological Society of America
* 1970 – member of the 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 ...
Eponyms
* ''Calamagrostis
''Calamagrostis'' (reed grass or smallweed) is a genus of flowering plants in the grass family Poaceae, with about 260 species that occur mainly in temperate regions of the globe. Towards equatorial latitudes, species of ''Calamagrostis'' general ...
cainii'' named by A. S. Hitchcock
Albert Spear Hitchcock (September 4, 1865 – December 16, 1935) was an American botanist and agrostologist.
Biography
Hitchcock graduated from the Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) with bachelor's degree in 1884 and M.S ...
in 1934, based upon a specimen collected by Cain
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cain, Stanley A.
1902 births
1995 deaths
20th-century American botanists
Plant ecologists
Butler University alumni
University of Chicago alumni
Butler University faculty
University of Tennessee faculty
University of Michigan faculty
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
People from Jefferson County, Indiana