Charles Otis Whitman
| Charles Otis Whitman | |
|---|---|
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| Born | December 6, 1842 , United States |
| Died | December 14, 1910 (aged 68) Worcester, Massachusetts, USA |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Fields | Zoology |
Charles Otis Whitman (December 6, 1842 – December 14, 1910) was an American zoologist, who was influential to the founding of classical ethology. A dedicated educator who preferred to teach a few research students at a time, he made major contributions in the areas of evolution and embryology of worms, comparative anatomy, heredity, and animal behaviour. He was known as the "Father of Zoology" in Japan.
Whitman was born in . His parents were Adventist pacifists and prevented his efforts to enlist in the Union army in 1862. He worked as a part-time teacher, and converted to Unitarianism. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1868. Following graduation Whitman became principal of the Westford Academy, a small Unitarian-oriented college preparatory school outside Lowell, Massachusetts. In 1872 he moved to Boston and after becoming a member of the Boston Society of Natural History in 1874, he decided to study zoology full-time. In 1875 he took a leave of absence and went to the University of Leipzig in Germany to complete a Ph.D. which he obtained in 1878.
A year later he received a postdoctoral fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University, but immediately gave it up when after recommended by noted biologist Edward Sylvester Morse, he was hired by the Japanese government to succeed Morse as professor at the Tokyo Imperial University from 1879-1881. Influenced by his training in Germany, he introduced systematic methods of biological research, including the use of the microscope.
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