J. Roger Bray

J. Roger Bray
Born
John Roger Bray

June 20, 1929
Belleville, Illinois, United States
DiedApril 25, 2018 (aged 88)
Nelson, New Zealand
Alma materUniversity of Illinois
OccupationEcologist

John Roger Bray was an American-born ecologist known for his collaboration with John Thomas Curtis.[1] The Bray–Curtis dissimilarity is jointly named after them.[2][3][4]

Bray was born in 1929 to Roger H. Bray, who developed the Bray soil test.[1][5] A native of Belleville, Illinois, the younger Bray was raised in Urbana, Illinois. Bray completed his bachelor's degree in botany at the University of Illinois in 1950, after three years of study. Bray began working toward a doctorate under John Thomas Curtis at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in August 1950. In 1955, Bray began teaching ecology at the University of Minnesota while working with Don Lawrence. In 1957, Bray joined the University of Toronto faculty. With Michael McNamee, Bray founded the Committee of 100 to oppose nuclear bomb testing. Bray resigned from his position at the University of Toronto in 1962, to protest the Canadian government placing nuclear weapons at present-day Iqaluit.[1]

Bray married Gwendolyn J. Struik, daughter of mathematicians Dirk Jan Struik and Saly Ruth Ramler, in 1961.[1][6] Following his resignation from Toronto, Bray and his wife moved to Kelowna, British Columbia. Soon after the Cuban Missile Crisis, both relocated to New Zealand in 1963, and began working for the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. The couple have three daughters.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Loucks, Orie (July 2015). "The Diverse Contributions of J. Roger Bray and Gwendolyn Struik". Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. 96 (3): 400–402. Bibcode:2015BuESA..96..400L. doi:10.1890/0012-9623-96.3.400.
  2. ^ Bray, J. R.; Curtis, J. T. (February 1957). "An Ordination of the Upland Forest Communities of Southern Wisconsin". Ecological Monographs. 27 (4): 325–349. Bibcode:1957EcoM...27..325B. doi:10.2307/1942268. JSTOR 1942268. S2CID 85720092.
  3. ^ "Dr Roger BRAY". Nelson Mail o. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  4. ^ World Who's who in Science A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Scientists from Antiquity to the Present. Marquis-Who's Who. 1968. p. 234.
  5. ^ Bray, Roger H.; Kurtz, L. T. (January 1945). "Determination of Total Organic and Available Forms of Phosphorus in Soils". Soil Science. 59 (1): 39–46. Bibcode:1945SoilS..59...39B. doi:10.1097/00010694-194501000-00006. S2CID 97616202.
  6. ^ "Mathematician Professor Dirk Struik dies at 106". Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 25 October 2000. Retrieved 24 June 2019.