Thomas Park (November 17, 1908 – March 30, 1992) was an American zoologist, recognized for transforming the field of

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

into a science with quantification and controlled experiments. He was a professor at 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 ...

and served in 1960 as President of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

.Bruce Lambert, "Thomas Park, 83, Dies of Cancer; Helped Ecology Become Science", The New York Times, April 4, 1992 Park was born in

Danville, Illinois Danville is a city in Vermilion County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. The populations was 29,204 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Danville micropolitan area. History The area that is now Danville was on ...

, and was raised there, in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and in Chicago. He attended the University of Chicago, earning a bachelor's degree in 1930 and a doctorate in zoology in 1932. Moving first, from 1933 to 1937 to

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

, he returned to the University of Chicago as a professor, rising to associate dean of its Biological Sciences Division from 1943 to 1946. He studied on a Rockefeller fellowship at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

in 1948 and served briefly as a scientific attache in the United States Embassy in London in 1949. Returning to the University of Chicago, he remained until his retirement in 1974. Park's research was on beetles. Experimentally, he competed two species of

flour beetle Flour beetles are members of several darkling beetle genera including '' Tribolium'' and ''Tenebrio''. They are pests of cereal silos and are widely used as laboratory animals, as they are easy to keep. The flour beetles consume wheat and other ...

s in test tubes containing flour, yeast and water, with different temperatures and humidity. Inevitably, one species dominated the other, which became extinct.Sewall Wright
"Thomas Park: President-Elect"
Science, vol. 131, p. 502, February 19, 1960 Park was married 35 years to the former Martha Alden Whitehead, who died in 1963. In 1969 he married Frances Lear.

References

20th-century American zoologists People from Danville, Illinois Presidents of the American Association for the Advancement of Science University of Chicago faculty University of Chicago alumni 1908 births 1992 deaths {{US-scientist-stub