Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology
academic body that conducts research in ornithology
The Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology (EGI), at Oxford University in England, is an academic body that conducts research in ornithology and the general field of evolutionary ecology and conservation biology, with an emphasis on understanding organisms in natural environments. It is named in honour of Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, a notable politician and ornithologist, and is part of the Department of Zoology at Oxford University.
The Institute houses the Alexander Library, the best ornithological library in Europe and one of the best in the world, which is named after W. B. Alexander.
History
The Edward Grey Institute (EGI) was founded in 1938, having grown out of the Oxford Bird Census, itself founded in 1927. It was the brainchild of Max Nicholson, Bernard Tucker, and Wilfred Backhouse Alexander, and was initially founded to promote the economic study of ornithology. It took its name from Edward Grey, at one time Chancellor of the University of Oxford and UK Foreign Secretary, and a lifelong birdwatcher, perhaps best known as the man who remarked, on the eve of the First World War: "The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."
The first Director of the fledgling Institute was W. B. Alexander, remembered in the name of the EGI's library, the Alexander Library. Alexander was succeeded in 1945 by former school-teacher David Lack, one of the pioneers of population biology, who had already published The Life of the Robin. Lack served as Director until his death in 1973, working with field assistants such as Denis Owen, and oversaw the growth of the EGI into an internationally known centre for research into population biology of birds.
Lack was succeeded by Chris Perrins in 1974, who continued as Director until his official retirement in 2002. During this time, work in the EGI expanded from the field of population biology to encompass the new field of behavioural ecology, with John Krebs and Nick Davies co-authoring the textbooks that defined the field.
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