S. F. Light
Light examining termites, c. 1937[1]
Born(1886-05-05)May 5, 1886
Elm Mills, Kansas, US
DiedJune 21, 1947(1947-06-21) (aged 61)
Lake County, California, US
Education
Known for
  • Systematics and biology of termites
  • Invertebrate zoology
Scientific career
FieldsZoology, entomology
Institutions
ThesisOn Hoplonympha natator, gen. nov., sp. nov. On Metadevescovina debilis, gen. nov., sp. nov. (1926)
Doctoral advisorCharles Atwood Kofoid
Notable studentsDonald Putnam Abbott, Theodore Holmes Bullock, Olga Hartman, Joel Hedgpeth, Mildred Stratton Wilson

Sol Felty Light (May 5, 1886 – June 21, 1947) was an American zoologist, entomologist, and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, known for his research on caste development in termites in the first half of his career, and for teaching marine zoology courses in the second half. From 1913 to 1947, he published approximately 70 papers, most on the subject of entomology. His class syllabus on zoology was originally designed for students at Berkeley, but in 1941 it was published as an invertebrate zoology textbook and field guide that had larger appeal, as it was considered the first complete compendium of marine invertebrates in the north central California coastal region ever published. After Light's death, the book was edited, revised, and expanded by Ralph I. Smith and other contributors, becoming known as Light's Manual. After Smith himself died, the book was renamed The Light and Smith Manual in his honor.

Biography

Light was born in Elm Mills, Kansas, on May 5, 1886.[2] His father was a Presbyterian minister,[3] and his maternal grandfather was United States Senator James W. McDill (1834–1894) from Iowa. Details about his early life are unknown.[4] Light attended university at Park College, Missouri (AB, 1908).[5] After graduating, he spent time abroad in Asia, teaching for several years in Japan, and two years at Manila High School in the Philippines.[3] He went on to spend two years teaching zoology at the University of the Philippines, where he attended graduate school (MS, 1913), participating in a marine survey at the harbor of Puerto Galera, Mindoro.[6] For about four months, from March to June 1912, Light and a team of researchers, including ichthyologist Alvin Seale (1871–1958), setup a temporary site, collecting samples for the department of zoology. They discovered that the site would be ideal for a permanent station.[7][lower-greek 1] Bullock notes that Light's early work on coelenterates, octocorals, and true jellyfish[lower-greek 2] arose out of this period in the Philippines, and argues that Light's former students at the university were partly responsible for later helping to establish the Puerta Galera Marine Biological Laboratory in 1925.[3]

Light became a full professor at the University of the Philippines, and finally chairman of the department until 1922. He took a leave of absence and obtained a second masters at Princeton University (MS, 1915).[4] From 1922 until 1924, he chaired the zoology department at the University of Amoy in China.[4] While there, he published an article in Science about lancelet (amphioxus) fisheries,[9] surprising scientists at the time who were unaware of their prevalence in the region, previously believing the fish was rare. George Sarton (1884–1956), the founder of the history of science discipline, was so impressed by Light's paper regarding lancelets that he cited it in his fifteenth critical bibliography of the field for 1924.[10] That same year, Light returned to the U.S. to pursue research on termites, receiving his doctorate under professor Charles Atwood Kofoid on termite flagellates at the University of California, Berkeley, (PhD, 1926).[5] In 1928, he worked with the Termite Investigations Committee, a joint University of California and private industry project to help find the best way to control the impact of the insects.[11] As part of the committee, he served as chairman on the subcommittee on publicity, as vice-chair on biology, and chair on the advisory council.[12] Light's important role on this project was noted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in late 1929.[13] That same year, Light was made full professor.[2] His contributions to Termites and Termite Control (1934), written in collaboration with Kofoid,[14] and his 1935 study on termite colony castes, established him as an expert in his field.[15]

In the 1930s, Light began teaching marine zoology and holding five-week summer courses and field trips to Moss Beach. From these classes, he developed a syllabus in 1937 which evolved into an invertebrate zoology textbook and field guide, later publishing it in book form as the Laboratory and Field Text in Invertebrate Zoology (1941).[16] The book is recognized as "the first reasonably comprehensive treatment of marine invertebrates" in the north central California coastal region.[17] On June 21, 1947, Light accidentally drowned as he was swimming in Clear Lake, while fishing on summer vacation.[16] Until his premature death, Light served as professor of zoology at Berkeley for 22 years.[16]

Personal life

Light married Mary Nexbitt Holdcroft on January 1, 1925.[4] He was said to have had a conservative demeanor, always appearing in full business suits while on field trips at the beach, only changing his shoes for rubber boots. Light disliked using "Sol Felty" as part of his full name;[2] Light's students knew him as "Dr. Light", while his own wife referred to him only as "S. F. Light" after he died. Former student Joel Hedgpeth remembers that Light "always signed himself S. F. Light, or S. F. L. He obviously didn't care much for what his parents had done for him...So sometimes, we use those terms, being overfamiliar in our behind-his-back sort of references."[18] Light was quietly active[lower-greek 3] in the Christian community and belonged to the First Congregational Church of Berkeley,[4] where he participated in the role of a vestryman. The church was popular with other members of the zoological community,[19] with Light's doctoral advisor Charles Atwood Kofoid and colleague Richard M. Eakin notable members.[lower-greek 4]

Legacy

In the 1940s, Light was profiled in American Men of Science as one of the top 255 practicing scientists in the U.S., of which he was rated one of a group of 37 top zoologists in the country.[20] During his lifetime, Light published 70 papers, many in the field of entomology.[4] After Light's death in 1947, his colleagues made note of his contributions to academia. "[His] whole life was motivated by great ability, high ideals, strict honesty, and real responsibility that helped to make him the great teacher and investigator that he was", wrote fellow Berkeley entomologist E. O. Essig in Light's obituary.[4] Former student and neuroscientist Theodore H. Bullock, zoologist Richard M. Eakin, and ornithologist Alden H. Miller wrote that Light's "unique courses in marine zoology given at the seashore under difficult conditions...maintained standards of excellence unsurpassed by any center of instruction in marine biology in the country".[15] Hedgpeth recalls that Light was referred to by others as an "inspired pedagogue" who "left his mark on virtually every institution of learning on the Pacific coast."[19]

H. W. Wu named the Light's bitterling (Rhodeus lighti) after Light in 1931[lower-greek 5] And, in 1961, Meredith L. Jones named Lightiella,[lower-greek 6] a new genus of horseshoe shrimp in the coastal waters of the San Francisco Bay, after Light.[22]

A notable group of students who studied under Light at Berkeley became leading authorities in their respective fields. These students include Olga Hartman (1900–1974), expert on polychaete worms, professor of biology at the University of Southern California;[23] zoologist Mildred Stratton Wilson (1909–1973), who like Light before her, focused on copepods as a research associate of the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Alaska;[24] Joel Hedgpeth (1911–2006), professor of oceanography at the University of California, San Diego;[18] zoological systematist Paul L. Illg (1914–1998), associate curator at the National Museum of Natural History and professor of zoology at the University of Washington;[25] neuroscientist Theodore H. Bullock (1915–2005), a pioneer in neuroethology;[26] and Donald P. Abbott (1920–1986), professor of biology at Stanford University and teacher at Hopkins Marine Station.[27]

Light also sat on the thesis committee for notable scholars. William C. Reeves (1916–2004), arbovirologist and professor of public health, recalls that during his Berkeley dissertation committee in 1943, the graduate dean chose Light to sit on the thesis committee as a "wild man", someone who could ask the candidate anything. Reeves had never taken any courses from Light, but had heard he "had a reputation for being a very difficult man". After the stressful experience, for which he earned a PhD in medical entomology and parasitology, Reeves came away with the impression that Light was a kind man.[28]

The zoological literature cites Light's research as an example of a historical body of work that contributed to an attempt to find answers to open problems in the study of termites. In 2010, Hanus et al. referred to Light's work on identifying insect pheromones in the reproductive inhibition of termites[lower-greek 7] as part of a larger body of "pioneering studies",[29] of which research continues to this day. A few months after Hanus et al. published their findings, Matsuura et al. summarized the state of modern research in this area of inquiry, pointing to Light's research: "In termites, which evolved eusociality independently of Hymenoptera, the existence of queen pheromones inhibiting the differentiation of supplementary queens has been suggested for many decades, but to date no active compounds have been identified."[30]

Light's Manual

Before Light's death, he acknowledged that the Laboratory and Field Text in Invertebrate Zoology (1941) was both incomplete and in need of corrections. When Light died, the first edition of the book was unavailable to students, as it was out of print. Editing and revisions were needed before it could be republished.[31] Ralph I. Smith (1916–1993) spent years editing and revising the original book, eventually publishing the second edition in 1954 with the title Intertidal Invertebrates of the Central California Coast, and the subtitle "S. F. Light's 'Laboratory and Field Text in Invertebrate Zoology'". Revisions to the new edition were made by Smith, Frank A. Pitelka, Donald P. Abbott, Frances M. Weesner, and other contributors.[32] A third, expanded edition was released in 1975, with the new title Light's Manual.[33] After Smith died in 1993, the title of the fourth edition, published in 2007, was changed to The Light and Smith Manual in his honor. The expanded and revised fourth edition includes coverage of California and Oregon with contributions from 120 scholars.[16]

Collections

Selected publications

Books
  • Termites and Termite Control (1934). OCLC 971458799.
  • Laboratory and Field Text in Invertebrate Zoology (1941). OCLC 7708655.
Articles
  • "Termites of Western Mexico" (1933). OCLC 700896660.
  • "Termites of Southeastern Polynesia" (1936). OCLC 1244125650
  • "Experimental studies on ectohormonal control of the development of supplementary reproductives in the termite genus Zootermopsis (formerly Termopsis)" (1944). OCLC 3006143.

Notes and references

Drawing of the true jellyfish Anomalorhiza shawi by Light. It was first described in 1921 from specimens Light collected in the Philippines. A century later, research continues on this rare species.[36]

Notes

  1. ↑ The area was later designated as a biosphere reserve in 1977.[8]
  2. ↑ Light, S. F. (January 1921). "Further Notes on Philippine Scyphomedusan Jellyfishes". The Philippine Journal of Science. 18 (1): 25-48.
  3. ↑ Hedgpeth 1952: "...I do remember [Light's] startled glance when, as a vestryman, he ushered me to a seat in the church at Berkeley of which, following their chairman's lead, a number of zoologists were staunch members. There was indeed something more than words can express to that brief encounter on a Sunday morning—perhaps because it was never alluded to afterwards—the feeling that perhaps I had caught my professor out at something he was not sure his students should know about him, as well as amazement that I should tum up. He almost forgot to give me a program."[19]
  4. ↑ See the "Charles Atwood Kofoid (1865-1947) Biography" at the UCSD Library and the press release "Richard M. Eakin, a zoology professor who enthralled UC Berkeley students with costumed lectures, is dead at 89" from the University of California at Berkeley Public Information Office.
  5. ↑ Wu 1931: "The new species is named in dedicating [sic] to Prof. S. F. Light, Prof. in Zoology, University of California, U. S. A., to whom I have greatly appreciated for his constant help and encouragement in my zoological studies during the three years association with him in the University of Amoy."[21]
  6. ↑ Jones 1961: "Dr. Ralph I. Smith and Mrs. Frances Weesner Lechleitner, who, with Dr. Hand, afforded me an indirect exposure to the research and teaching methods of the late Professor S. F. Light, Department of Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, in whose honor I am pleased to name this new cephalocarid."[22]
  7. ↑ "Review: Experimental Studies on Ectohormonal Control of the Development of Supplementary Reproductives in the Termite Genus Zootermopsis (Formerly Termopsis)". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 20 (1): 93. March 1945.
  8. ↑ Light's termite collection was partly absorbed by Alfred E. Emerson at the University of Chicago after Light's death.[2] It was donated to the American Museum of Natural History in 1962 upon Emerson's retirement, where it resides today.[34] See also: Snyder, Thomas E. (1949). Catalog Of The Termites (isoptera) Of The World. Smithsonian Institution. 112 (3953): 2. OCLC 609159301.
  9. ↑ In the 1970s, collections from Stanford University and the Hopkins Marine Station were acquired by the California Academy of Sciences. "The collectors comprise a kind of 'who's who' among pioneer biologists of the coast, including David Starr Jordan, W.D. De Laubenfels [sic], William Healey Dall, Alexander Agassiz, Libbie Hyman, S.F. Light, and many others, as well as specimens..collected by E.F. Ricketts...and John Steinbeck in the Sea of Cortez."[35]

References

  1. ↑ Sibley, Robert (1937). The Golden Book of California. California Alumni Association. p. 196. OCLC 3424318.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Mallis, Arnold. (1971). American Entomologists. Rutgers University Press. pp. 473-474. OCLC 595601579.
  3. 1 2 3 Bullock, Theodore H. (November 21, 1947). "Obituary". Science. American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). 106 (2760): 483-484. ISSN 0036-8075. doi:10.1126/science.106.2760.483.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Essig, E. O. (April 1948). "Sol Felty Light 1886-1947" Archived November 23, 2023, at the Wayback Machine. The Pan-Pacific Entomologist. 24 (2): 49-53. Retrieved November 22, 2023.
  5. 1 2 Visher, Stephen Sargent (1947). Scientists Starred, 1903-1943, in "American Men of Science": A Study of Collegiate and Doctoral Training, Birthplace, Distribution, Backgrounds, and Developmental Influences. Johns Hopkins Press. OCLC 503933544.
  6. ↑ "University and Educational News". Science. American Association for the Advancement of Science. 35 (903): 618. April 19, 1912.
  7. ↑ Roxas, Hilario A. (1930). "The Puerto Galera Marine Biological Laboratory of the University of the Philippines". University of the Philippines. pp. 1-32.
  8. ↑ "Puerto Galera Biosphere Reserve, Philippines". United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Retrieved November 28, 2023.
  9. ↑ Light, S. F. (July 27, 1923). "Amphioxus Fisheries near the University of Amoy, China". Science. American Association for the Advancement of Science. 58 (1491): 57-60.
  10. ↑ Yi Lai Luk, Christine (2020). "The First Marine Biological Station in Modern China: Amoy University and Amphioxus". In Karl S. Matlin, Jane Maienschein, Rachel A. Ankeny (Eds). Why Study Biology by the Sea?. University of Chicago Press. pp. 68-86. ISBN 9780226673097. OCLC 1148370849.
  11. ↑ Light, S. F. (April 1929). "Termites and Termite Damage". University of California. College of Agriculture. Agricultural Experiment Station. Berkeley, California. Circular 314.
  12. ↑ Light, S. F.; Randall, Merle; White, Frank G. (August 1930). "Termites and Termite Damage". University of California. College of Agriculture. Agricultural Experiment Station. Berkeley, California. Circular 318.
  13. ↑ Vestal, Arthur G. (August 9, 1929). "The Second Berkeley Meeting of the Pacific Division". Science. American Association for the Advancement of Science. 70 (1806): 130.
  14. ↑ Osborn, Herbert. (1952). A Brief History of Entomology Including Time of Demosthenes and Aristotle to Modern Times with over Five Hundred Portraits Archived November 23, 2023, at the Wayback Machine. The Spahr & Glenn Company. p. 208. OCLC 761988303.
  15. 1 2 Bullock, Theodore H.; Eakin, Richard M.; Miller, Alden H. (1947). Sol Felty Light, Zoölogy: Berkeley (1886-1947) Archived November 9, 2023, at the Wayback Machine. University of California: In Memoriam, 1947. UC History Digital Archives. Retrieved November 9, 2023.
  16. 1 2 3 4 Carlton, James T. (ed.) (2007). The Light and Smith Manual: Intertidal Invertebrates from Central California to Oregon. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520930438. doi:10.1525/9780520930438. OCLC 1163878190.
  17. ↑ "Newsletter". Southern California Association of Marine Invertebrate Taxonomists/ Jan/Feb/March/April, 2009 Vol. 27, No. 5. Retrieved November 29, 2023.
  18. 1 2 Hedgpeth, Joel W. (1992). "Marine Biologist and Environmentalist: Pycnogonids, Progress, and Preserving Bays, Salmon, and Other Living Things" Archived November 23, 2023, at the Wayback Machine. Interviews conducted by Ann Lage in 1992. Source of Community Leaders Series. The Bancroft Library. University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley.
  19. 1 2 3 Hedgpeth, Joel (1952). "Preface: About This Book and Ed Ricketts, 1952". In Ricketts, Ed. (1985)[1939]. Between Pacific Tides. Stanford University Press. pp. xvii-xviii. ISBN 9781503621329. OCLC 1147728037.
  20. ↑ Cattell, Jaques (August 11, 1944). "American Men of Science: Scientific Men Receiving Stars in the Seventh Edition" Archived November 28, 2023, at the Wayback Machine. Science. American Association for the Advancement of Science. 100 (2589): 126-129.
  21. ↑ Wu H-W. (1931). "Notes on the fishes from the Coast of Foochow region and Ming River". Contributions from the Biological Laboratory of the Science Society of China. Zoological Series 7: 1–64.
  22. 1 2 Jones, M. L. (1961). "Lightiella serendipita gen. nov., sp. nov., a cephalocarid from San Francisco Bay, California" Archived November 25, 2023, at the Wayback Machine. Crustaceana. 3 (1): 31-46.
  23. ↑ Fauchald, Kristian; Reish, Donald J. (1977). "Biography and bibliography of Dr. Olga Hartman". In Donald J. Reish, & Kristian Fauchald (eds.). Essays on Polychaetous Annelids: In Memory of Dr. Olga Hartman. The Allan Hancock Foundation, University of Southern California. pp. 1-23. OCLC 3343542, 610415673.
    • Light, S. F.; Hartman, Olga. (1937). "A review of the genera Clausidium Kossman and Hemicyclops Boeck (Copepoda, Cyclopoida), with the description of a new species from the Northeast Pacific". University of California Publications in Zoology. 41 (14): 173-188. OCLC 2990020.
  24. ↑ Damkaer, David M. (January 1, 1988). "Mildred Stratton Wilson, Copepodologist" Archived May 21, 2023, at the Wayback Machine. Journal of Crustacean Biology, 8 (1): 131-146. ISSN 0278-0372.
  25. ↑ Hadfield, Michael G. (1998). "Paul Louis Illg". Journal of Crustacean Biology. 18 (4): 839-841.
  26. ↑ Squire, Larry R. (1996). "Theodore H. Bullock" Archived November 24, 2023, at the Wayback Machine. The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography Archived November 19, 2023, at the Wayback Machine. Volume 1. Society for Neuroscience. pp. 114-115. ISBN 9780080534046. OCLC 243695576.
  27. ↑ Newberry, Todd. (October 1, 1986). "Donald Putnam Abbott" (1920–1986) Archived November 24, 2023, at the Wayback Machine. The Veliger. California Malacozoological Society. 29 (2): 138-141. ISSN 0042-3211.
  28. ↑ Reeves, William C. (1990-91). "Arbovirologist and Professor, UC Berkeley School of Public Health" Archived November 23, 2023, at the Wayback Machine. An oral history conducted in 1990 and 1991 by Sally Smith Hugh. The University History Series. University Archives. The Bancroft Library. University of California at Berkeley.
  29. ↑ Hanus, R., Vrkoslav, V., Hrdý, I., Cvacka, J., & Sobotník, J. (2010). "Beyond cuticular hydrocarbons: evidence of proteinaceous secretion specific to termite kings and queens". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 277 (1684): 995–1002.
  30. ↑ Matsuura, Kenji; Himuro, Chihiro; Yokoi, Tomoyuki; Keller, Laurent (July 6, 2010). "Identification of a pheromone regulating caste differentiation in termites". PNAS. 107 (209): 12963-12968.
  31. ↑ Le Cren, E. D. (May 1955). "Shore Invertebrates". Journal of Animal Ecology. British Ecological Society. 24 (1): 204.
  32. ↑ Light S. F. & Smith R. I. (1954). Intertidal Invertebrates of the Central California Coast. 2d ed. University of California Press. OCLC 1097984.
  33. ↑ Light, S. F.; Smith, R. I.; Carlton, J. T. (1975). Light's Manual: Intertidal Invertebrates of the Central California Coast. 3d ed. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520021136. OCLC 1495405.
  34. ↑ "Blattodea" Archived November 25, 2023, at the Wayback Machine. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved November 25, 2023.
  35. ↑ Williams, Gary C. (May 11, 2007). "History of Invertebrate Zoology at the California Academy of Sciences" Archived November 4, 2023, at the Wayback Machine. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences. Fourth Series. 58 (12): 197-239.
  36. ↑ Ricca PMC, Cheung HCA (2021). "Sighting of the rare jellyfish Anomalorhiza shawi Light, 1921 in a marine protected area of Hong Kong" Archived November 28, 2023, at the Wayback Machine. Check List. 17 (2): 701-707.
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