Abstract
DR. ERIC ASHBY, reader in botany in the University of Bristol since 1935, has been appointed to the chair of botany in the University of Sydney, Australia, in succession to Prof. T. G. B. Osborn. After leaving the City of London School, Dr. Ashby entered the Imperial College of Science in 1923, graduating in 1925. From this time dates the origin of his original investigations, which have been pursued steadily along two main lines: a quantitative study of the effects of the environmental factors and their interactions on the growth of Lemna, and the analysis of hybrid vigour. Papers on both these topics have appeared in the Annals of Botany. In 1929 he secured a Commonwealth fellowship and widened his scientific outlook by two years work in the United States. Shortly after his return he was awarded the D.Sc. of the University of London. Dr. Ashby has played a prominent part in the development of a quantitative ecology and has surveyed this subject in botanical reviews. His highly individual view on the nature of heterosis has aroused general interest if not general approbation. His point of view is succinctly expressed in a contribution to the Royal Society on the theory of heterosis. Dr. Ashby has served botanical science in various capacities on the councils of the Linnean and Ecological Societies, and as the joint secretary of the Society of Experimental Biologists. His great talents and enterprise have gained due recognition in securing at the early age of thirty-three years an appointment of such distinction.
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Dr. Eric Ashby. Nature 140, 883 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/140883b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/140883b0