Julian Huxley

Sir Julian Sorell Huxley, FRS (June 22, 1887 – February 14, 1975) was a British biologist, author, humanist and internationalist, known for his popularisations of science in books and lectures. He was the first director of UNESCO and was knighted in 1958.

Academic life

In 1906, after a summer in Germany, Huxley took his place at Oxford, where he developed a particular interest in embryology and protozoa. In the autumn semester of his final year, 1908, his mother died from cancer. In 1909 he graduated with first class honours, and was offered the Naples scholarship. He spent a year at the Naples Marine Biological Station where he developed his interest in embryology and development by researching sea squirts and sea urchins. In 1910 he took up a lecturing post at Oxford, but in 1912 was asked by Edgar Odell Lovett to take the chair of Biology at the newly created Rice Institute in Houston, Texas, which he accepted at took up the following year.

Related Topics:
1906 - Germany - Embryology - Protozoa - Cancer - 1909 - Naples scholarship - Naples Marine Biological Station - Sea squirts - Sea urchins - 1910 - 1912 - Edgar Odell Lovett - Rice Institute - Houston - Texas

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Before taking up the post at the Rice Institute Huxley spent a year in Germany preparing for the demanding post. Working in a laboratory just months before the outbreak of World War I, Huxley overheard fellow academics comment on a passing aircraft, "it will not be long before those planes are flying over England," cementing Huxley's strong internationalist political views. While in Germany Huxley experienced a nervous breakdown and returned to England to rest in a nursing home. At the same time his brother Trev, two years junior, also had a breakdown, and hanged himself.

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In September 1916 Huxley returned from Texas to assist in the war effort, working in intelligence, first at GCHQ and then in northern Italy. After the war he was offered a fellowship at New College, Oxford, which had lost many staff and students in the war. In 1925 Huxley moved to King's College, London, as Professor of Zoology, but in 1927 left teaching and research to work full time with H.G. and G.P Wells on The Science of Life (see see below).

Related Topics:
1916 - GCHQ - New College, Oxford - 1925 - King's College, London - Zoology - 1927 - H.G. - G.P Wells - The Science of Life - See below

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In 1935 Huxley was appointed secretary to the Zoological Society of London, and spent much of the next seven years running the society and its zoological gardens, London Zoo and Whipsnade Park, alongside his zoological research. In 1941 Huxley was invited to the United States on a lecturing tour, and generated some controversy after stating that he believed the United States should join World War II a few weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Because of the country joining the war the lecture tour was extended and the council of the Zoological Society, who were uneasy with their secretary, used this as an excuse to remove him as secretary. Huxley used this opportunity to dedicate much of the rest of his life to science popularisation and political issues.

Related Topics:
1935 - Zoological Society of London - Zoological gardens - London Zoo - Whipsnade Park - 1941 - United States - World War II - Attack on Pearl Harbor

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As well as his zoological research Huxley contributed theorectical works to evolutionary biology, and he was one of the many key people in the modern evolutionary synthesis. Bird watching in childhood gave Huxley his interest in ornithology, and throughout his life he helped devise systems for the surveying and conservation of birds, and wrote several papers on avian ethology. His research interests also included medicine and the then infant field of molecular biology. He was a friend and mentor of the biologist Konrad Lorenz.

Related Topics:
Evolutionary biology - Modern evolutionary synthesis - Bird watching - Ornithology - Bird - Ethology - Medicine - Molecular biology - Konrad Lorenz

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Huxley coined the terms "mentifacts", "socifacts" and "artifacts" to describe how cultural traits take on a life of their own, spanning over generations. This idea is related to memetics.

Related Topics:
Mentifact - Socifact - Artifact - Memetics

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