Neal A. Weber

Cornelius "Neal" Albert Weber (December 14, 1908, Towner, North Dakota – January 21, 2001) was an internationally known myrmecologist,[1] specializing in the fungus-growing ants (the attines).[2]

Biography

Weber graduated from the University of North Dakota with an A.B. in 1930 and an M.S. in 1932. At Harvard University he graduated with an A.M. in 1933 and a Ph.D. in zoology in 1935. He was from 1936 to 1943 an associate professor of biology at the University of North Dakota and from 1943 to 1947 an associate professor of anatomy at the School of Medicine of the University of North Dakota.[3] In the biology department of Swarthmore College, he was from 1947 to 1957 an associate professor and from 1958 to 1974 a full professor, retiring from Swarthmore as professor emeritus in 1974.[1] In 1975 he became an adjunct professor of biology at Florida State University.[4]

Weber participated in several scientific expeditions in the 1930s: in the West Indies from 1933 to 1936 (concentrating on Trinidad from 1934 to 1936), the Orinoco Delta in 1935, British Guiana in 1936, Barro Colorado Island and Colombia in 1938, and Sudan, Uganda, and Kenya in 1939.[3] In the late 1940s and early 1950s he participated in several American Museum of Natural History expeditions: in central Africa in 1948, in the Middle East in 1950 and in 1952, and in tropical America in 1954. From 1950 to 1952 he was a visiting professor at the University of Baghdad. From 1958 to 1960 he was a member of the polar research team of the National Academy of Sciences. From 1960 to 1962 he served as a U.S. Department of State scientific attaché in Buenos Aires.[1]

In addition to his research on the genus Atta,[5][6][7][8] he also did research on other ant genera, as well as field zoology, zoogeography, arthropod vectors of diseases,[3] and ecology.[1] He corresponded with many notable entomologists, including Joseph Charles Bequaert, Horace Donisthorpe, Alfred E. Emerson, Caryl Parker Haskins, William M. Mann, Mary Talbot, George C. Wheeler, and William Morton Wheeler.[1]

Weber was elected in 1944 a fellow of the Entomological Society of America.[9] He was elected in 1965 a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[10] His book Fungus-growing ants, the attines won the 1973 John Frederick Lewis Award of the American Philosophical Society.[11]

In 1940[3] he married Jean Charlotte Jeffery (1912–2000). They had a daughter and two sons.

References
  1. Catlett, J. Stephen, ed. (1987). A New Guide to the Collections in the Library of the American Philosophical Society. American Philosophical Society. pp. 303–304. ISBN 9780871696601.
  2. Weber, Neal A. (1972). Gardening ants, the attines. volume 92, Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. ISBN 0871690926. LCCN 76184169; xvii+146 p.; illus. 28 cm{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  3. Cattell, Jaques, ed. (1949). American Men of Science: A Biographical Dictionary. Lancaster, Pennsylvania: The Science Press. pp. 2643–2644.
  4. "Members in the News". Bulletin of the Entomological Society of America. 21: 76. 1975. doi:10.1093/besa/21.1.76.
  5. Becker, Edward C., ed. (1958). "Evolution in fungus-growing ants by Neal A. Weber" (PDF). Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress of Entomology, August 17–25, 1956: Montreal, volume 2. Ottawa, Canada: Mortimer Ltd. pp. 459–473.
  6. Herman, Henry R., ed. (2 December 2012). "Chapter 4. Fungus Ants by Neal A. Weber". Social Insects, volume IV. pp. 255–364. ISBN 9780323152167.
  7. Weber, Neal A. (1966). "Fungus-Growing Ants". Science. 153 (3736): 587–604. Bibcode:1966Sci...153..587W. doi:10.1126/science.153.3736.587. PMID 17757227. S2CID 31919824.
  8. Weber, Neal A. (1972). "The Fungus-culturing Behavior of Ants". American Zoologist. 12 (3): 577–587. doi:10.1093/icb/12.3.577.
  9. "List of ESA Fellows". Entomological Society of America.
  10. "Historic Fellows". American Association for the Advancement of Science.
  11. "John Frederick Lewis Award, Prize Recipients". American Philosophical Society.
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