Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists:
Chrono-Biographical Sketches

Adams, Charles Christopher (United States 1873-1955)
ecology, biogeography

Adams is little remembered today, which is too bad because he was one of the most progressive ecologists of his time. With educational depth in both biology and geology, he became a strong advocate of taxonomic and historical styles of investigation in ecology in ways considerably expanding upon the methods taught by one of his mentors at Chicago, Henry Cowles. He put this understanding into practice early in a series of turn-of-the-century papers on the patterns of post-glacial dispersal of animal populations. These included discussions of the "center of origin" concept. He also gave attention to the analysis of population variation, his study The Variations and Ecological Distribution of the Snails of the Genus Io (a genus of snails) in particular standing as a landmark work in the study of clines. In addition, he had success as a museum administrator and forest manager. Adams was a founder of the Ecological Society of America and an early supporter of the Association of American Geographers, a strong advocate for the use of experimentation in ecology, and in general a persistent force in the early twentieth century professionalization of the fields of ecology and biogeography.

--born in Clinton, Illinois, on 23 July 1873.
--1895: B.S., Illinois Wesleyan University
--1895-1896: assistant biologist, Illinois Wesleyan University
--1896-1898: assistant entomologist, Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History
--1899: M.S., Harvard University
--1900-1903: on fellowship, University of Chicago
--1903-1906: curator, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology
--1905: publishes "The Postglacial Dispersal of the North American Biota" in Biological Bulletin
--1906-1907: director, Cincinnati Society of Natural History
--1907: curator, University of Cincinnati museum
--1908: Ph.D., University of Chicago
--1908-1914: associate professor of animal ecology, University of Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History
--1913: publishes his Guide to the Study of Animal Ecology
--1913: vice-president, Association of American Geographers
--1914-1916: assistant professor of forest zoology, New York State College of Forestry, Syracuse
--1915: publishes his The Variations and Ecological Distribution of the Snails of the Genus Io
--1916: helps found the Ecological Society of America
--1916-1926: professor of forest zoology, New York State College of Forestry
--1919-1926: director, Roosevelt Wildlife Forest Experiment Station
--1920: honorary Sc.D., Illinois Wesleyan University
--1923: president, Ecological Society of America
--1926-1943: director, New York State Museum, Albany
--1927: vice-president, Association of American Geographers
--dies at Albany, New York, on 22 May 1955.

--National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. 46 (1963).
--Biographical Dictionary of American and Canadian Naturalists and Environmentalists (1997).
--Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, Vol. 37(4) (1956): 103-105.
--Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 49(2) (1959): 164-167.
--Science, Vol. 123 (1956): 974.
--Journal of the History of Biology, Vol. 32(3) (1999): 439-463.