Ken Simmons

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Kenneth Edwin Laurence Ryder Simmons
Born(1929-03-29)29 March 1929
Died25 February 2002(2002-02-25) (aged 72)
NationalityBritish
Occupations

Kenneth Edwin Laurence Ryder Simmons (29 March 1929

National Service from 1948-50 Simmons was posted to the Suez Canal Zone, Egypt where his observations of birds provided material for later published work. From 1947 onwards he published many notes and papers on birds. He became particularly interested in the taxonomic implications of certain simple behaviour patterns and in bird taxonomy generally and was listed in the 1961 Directory of Zoological Taxonomists. He was also a committee member, joint recorder and Chairman of the Reading Ornithological Club
.

In February 1962 he moved to

Leverhulme Fellowship enabling him to register, in 1965, as a postgraduate student at the Department of Psychology, University of Bristol. In 1967 he was awarded an MSc for his Ascension Island booby studies and in 1970 a PhD for work on the great crested grebe. Simmons' work was widely cited in ornithological circles.[3] While in Bristol he was a founding committee member of the Bristol Ornithological Club
.

Following his PhD he moved to

SRC
funding allowed him to work full-time on The Birds of the Western Palearctic. He was responsible for the Voice section, the Family Summaries and general trouble shooting. He also spent time writing papers and books and biographical study of Edmund Selous.

References