Lee R. Dice

Lee R. Dice
Born	Lee Raymond Dice (1887-07-15)July 15, 1887 Savannah, Georgia
Died	January 31, 1977(1977-01-31) (aged 89) Ann Arbor, Michigan
Nationality	American
Education	Stanford University University of California, Berkeley
Spouse	Doris S. Lemon ​ (m. 1918⁠–⁠1977)​
Children	Betty, John, and Dorothy
Awards	Eminent Ecologist Award from the Ecological Society of America (1964)
Scientific career
Fields	Ecology Genetics
Institutions	University of Montana U.S. Biological Survey University of Michigan
Thesis	Distribution of the land vertebrates of southeastern Washington (1915)
Doctoral advisor	Joseph Grinnell
Other academic advisors	Samuel Jackson Holmes
Notable students	Philip J. Clark

Lee Raymond Dice (July 15, 1887 – January 31, 1977) was an American ecologist and geneticist who taught at the University of Michigan for almost his entire career.[1][2] He is known for independently developing the Sørensen–Dice coefficient. [3]

Education and career

Dice was born in Savannah, Georgia and studied briefly at Washington State College and University of Chicago before moving to Stanford University. He earned his A.B. from Stanford University in 1911, followed by an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1914 and 1915, respectively. For his M.S. project, Dice worked on the movements of water fleas under Samuel Jackson Holmes. During his Ph.D., he worked under Joseph Grinnell on vertebrates in the Washington state. After graduation, Dice took on the role of an instructor in zoology at Kansas State Agricultural College (now Kansas State University) from 1916 to 1917 and later served as an assistant professor of zoology at the University of Montana from 1917 to 1918. Between 1918 and 1919, Dice worked at the U.S. Biological Survey and the Michigan Biological and Geological Survey as a field assistant. He began teaching at the University of Michigan in 1919 as an assistant professor and became a professor in 1942. He taught at the University of Michigan until 1957, during which time he founded the University's heredity clinic and served as director of its Institute of Human Biology.[4][1]

Honors and awards

Dice served as vice-president of the American Society of Mammalogists from 1947 to 1951 and the vice-president of the Society for the Study of Evolution between 1947 and 1948 and between 1953 and 1954. In 1948, Dice became the president of the Ecologists Union, later known as the Nature Conservancy. He served as president of the Ecological Society of America from 1952 to 1953 and received its Eminent Ecologist Award in 1964.[2][5] In 1957, the University of Michigan honored him by creating the Lee R. Dice Distinguished Professorship.[2]

References

1. Evans, Francis C. (1978-08-21). "Lee Raymond Dice (1887–1977)". Journal of Mammalogy. 59 (3): 635–644. doi:10.2307/1380249. ISSN 1545-1542. JSTOR 1380249.
2. "Chrono-Biographical Sketch: Lee Raymond Dice". Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists: Chrono-Biographical Sketches. Retrieved 2020-02-08.
3. Dice, Lee R. (1945). "Measures of the Amount of Ecologic Association Between Species". Ecology. 26 (3): 297–302. doi:10.2307/1932409. JSTOR 1932409.
4. "Lee R. Dice, 89, Is Dead". The New York Times. 1977-02-03. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-02-08.
5. "Lee R. Dice, Eminent Ecologist for 1964". Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. 45 (4): 134–135. 1964-12-01. doi:10.2307/20165648. JSTOR 20165648. S2CID 252255076.