Ralph Buchsbaum

Infobox_Scientist
name = Ralph Buchsbaum

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image_width = 150px
caption =
birth_date = January 2, 1907
birth_place = Chickasha, Oklahoma
death_date = death date and age|2002|02|11|1907|01|2
death_place = Pacific Grove, California
nationality = American
field = invertebrate biology, ecology
work_institution = University of Chicago
University of Pittsburgh
doctoral_advisor =
societies =
prizes =

Ralph Morris Buchsbaum (January 2, 1907 – February 11, 2002) was an American zoologist, invertebrate biologist, and ecologist. His book "Animals Without Backbones", written in 1938, [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,772212,00.html Review] in "Time", December 26, 1938.] was the first textbook in biology to be reviewed by "Time" and featured in "Life", has gone through several revisions,citation|first=Paul F.|last=Clark|title=Book reviews: Animals Without Backbones, 3rd ed.|journal=Journal of Natural History|volume=22|year=1988|pages=569|url=http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/index/W568527L7720TN65.pdf.] [citation|title=Book Reviews: Animals without Backbones|last1=Lorus|first1=J.|last2=Milne|first2=Margery J.|journal=Science|volume=109|issue=2834|year=1949|pages=415–416|url=http://www.jstor.org/view/00368075/ap992834/99a00280/0.] [Book reviews in "Quarterly Review of Biology", 1949, by B. Glass, 1977, by G. Hechtel, and 1989, by E.H. Kaplan.] is still in print, [ISBN 978-0226078748. The longevity of this book was noted by citation|last=Street|first=W. R.|year=1994|title=A Chronology of Noteworthy Events in American Psychology|contribution=Addenda|contribution-url=http://www.cwu.edu/~warren/addenda.html|location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=American Psychological Association, which notes the publication of this book as an important event in the history of psychology.] and has been widely used as a textbook. [An [http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/issue_pdf/backmatter_pdf/107/2784.pdf advertisement for the 1948 revision of the book] in "Science" states that it was then in use as a text at over 200 colleges and universities. The ad also quotes a review by Carroll Lane Fenton for the American Association for the Advancement of Science calling it "the only book on invertebrates whose illustrations do justice to the subject".]

Buchsbaum was born in 1907, in Chickasha, Indian Territory, now part of Oklahoma. He earned his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Chicago in 1932 and continued there as a faculty member until 1950, when he moved to the University of Pittsburgh. He retired in 1972, and died February 11, 2002 in Pacific Grove, California, of heart failure.citation|url=http://www.seaotters.org/theraft/index.cfm?DocID=154|title=The Passing of a Wonderful Biologist|journal=The Otter Raft|first=Jud|last=Vandevere|volume=66|year=2002.] citation|title=In Memoriam: Dr. Ralph Morris Buchsbaum|journal=Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Newsletter|url=http://www.sicb.org/newsletters/nl04-2002/diz.php3|date=Spring 2002.]

Due to his 1938 book, Buchsbaum became known as a popularizer of science. In 1952 he founded The Boxwood Press, which published his own and others' science books. He also made a series of 29 educational films on biology for the Encyclopædia Britannica, and visited Thailand, Ecuador, Ghana, and India, where he helped develop educational curricula in biology. ["UNESCO Aide in Accra", "Washington Post", August 19, 1967. An article about Buchsbaum's arrival in Ghana as director of a UNESCO project there.]

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