Raymond Pearl
| Raymond Pearl | |
|---|---|
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| Born | June 3, 1879 |
| Died | November 17, 1940 (aged 61) |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Biogerontology |
| Institutions | Johns Hopkins University |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Pearl |
Raymond Pearl (3 June 1879 – 17 November 1940) was an American biologist, regarded as one of the founders of biogerontology. He spent most of his career at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Pearl was a prolific writer of academic books, papers and articles, as well as a committed populariser and communicator of science. At his death, 841 publications were listed against his name.
Born of upper-middle class parents in New England, Pearl excelled at school and went on to Dartmouth College where he gained his B.A. in 1899, and the University of Michigan where he gained his PhD in zoology in 1902. In 1906 he spent a year studying under Karl Pearson at University College, London. During this year he discovered biometry, which seemed to offer a solution to the problems he was concerned with in biology, zoology and eugenics. On his return to the US he continued his interests, but was converted from biometry to Mendelian genetics.
In 1920 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, which he also served as president.
Pearl maintained a loose interest in eugenics, but in 1927 published the landmark article The Biology of Superiority, which attacked the basic assumptions of eugenics. The article was the first general attack on eugenics by someone perceived as being within the movement. It also contributed to the emergence of reform eugenics and the population control movement. Pearl was an influential member of the Advisory Committee of the World Population Conference, after which Pearl helped found the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population Problems.
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