Richard Laws
Dick Laws ScD | |
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Born | Richard Maitland Laws 23 April 1926 |
Died | 7 October 2014 | (aged 88)
Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
Awards |
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Scientific career | |
Fields | Marine biology |
Institutions |
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Richard Maitland Laws
Education and early life
Laws was born in Whitley Bay, Northumberland and educated at Dame Allan's School, Newcastle upon Tyne and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he was an Open Scholar.[3][4]
Career
Laws started his career as a zoologist on the
Outside Antarctica, he was also an expert on the large African mammals. In 1960, he was appointed Director of the Nuffield Unit of Tropical Animal Ecology in Uganda. Over the next eight years, his research focused on hippopotamus and elephant ecology. Laws spent a year as Director of the Tsavo Research Project in Kenya (1967–68).[5] Needing data from 300 dead elephants, Laws' research at Tsavo involved the slaughter of 300 wild elephants, which were taken from one herd. He then asked for a similar number to be killed in each of the nine remaining Tsavo herds. Protests led by David Sheldrick resulted in the denial of this request and the subsequent winding up Laws' research.[6]
Laws returned to Cambridge in 1968 to resume his Antarctic research. In 1969, he became Head of the Life Sciences Division of the British Antarctic Survey. He succeeded Vivian Fuchs as BAS Director in 1973, a post he held until retirement in May 1987.[5]
He was
Awards and honours
In 1954, Laws won the
Laws was elected a
In 1991, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University of Bath.[7] He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters from 1998.[8]
Laws prize
On his retirement, a fund was established for a prize to be awarded in recognition of the achievements of outstanding young scientists of the Survey.[9] The Laws Prize continues to be awarded annually, with the fund administered by the BAS Club.
References
- ^ ISSN 0080-4606.
- ^ .
- ^ Who's Who & Who Was Who. Vol. 2020 (online Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ISBN 061825210X. Retrieved 5 November 2012.
- ^ a b c d e "Dr Richard Laws – Influential scientists". National Oceanographic Centre. Archived from the original on 6 December 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-670-91971-0.
- ^ "Honorary Graduates 1989 to present". University of Bath. Archived from the original on 10 July 2014.
- ^ "Utenlandske medlemmer" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Archived from the original on 15 July 2007. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
- ^ "The Laws Prize". British Antarctic Survey Club. Archived from the original on 23 June 2015. Retrieved 5 November 2012.