Thursday, December 6, 2012

Rachel Carsen: Most Influential Biologists in the 20th Century



(1907-1964) Born in Pennsylvania, United States. She completed her masters in zoology in 1932 and later joined the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries as a junior aquatic biologist.
She eventually became a well known marine biologist and authored three best selling and well known books exploring the life in sea from the shore to the depths. Under the Sea Wind (1941), Sea Around Us (1951) and Edge of the Sea (1955) were those three books and by the time she completed this trilogy she was better known as a full-time nature writer.



Her most influential work, The Silent Spring was published in 1962. This book which was based on her research regarding the environmental and health impact of chemical pesticides including DDT gained a huge attention from various communities. It inspired many environmental movements in the United States which later formed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and also led to a national ban on DDT.
She died from a heart attack on 1964 and she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (highest civilian award in US) in 1980.

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