Victor E. Shelford

Victor E. Shelford
Born: Chemung, NY 9/22/1877; died 12/27/1968
Education: Univ. of Chicago (B.S. 1903; Ph.D. 1907)
Dissertation title: The life histories and larval habits of the tiger beetles (J. Linn. Soc. London (Zool.) 30:157-184)
Advisor: C. M. Child (see comments)
Comments: Academic mentorship at Chicago in the early 20th century seems to have been rather ambiguous.  According to his biographer, Robert Croker, Shelford’s dissertation research, which was not particularly ecological, was supervised by developmental biologist C. M. Childs.  However, his candidacy for the Ph.D. degree was recommended to the faculty by the department chair, Charles Otis Whitman. In any case, his ecological ideas were clearly inspired by Henry C. Cowles, whom he described as “the teacher who influenced me most”.
Teaching history: Chicago 1907-14; Illinois 1914-46
Ph.D students: S. Charles Kendeigh
Others influenced: Stanley Auerbach (M.S.), Eugene P. Odum (Ph.D), Robert H. Whittaker (Ph.D)
ESA Offices and honors: Founder (1914); First ESA President 1916; Eminent Ecologist 1968.
ESA links: Eminent Ecologist
Archived Papers: Victor E. Shelford Papers 1896-1965. University of Illinois Archives, Urbana-Champaign IL. Includes a digitized interview of Shelford done in 1965. | Mentioned in Sigurd F. Olson Papers at Minnesota
External links: Smith bios | Wikipedia | Encyclopedia Britannica