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David Starr Jordan ( January 19, 1851– September 19, 1931) was a leading ichthyologist, educator and peace activist. He was president of Indiana University and Stanford University.
Born into a farm family of Gainesville, New York, he entered the newly-established Cornell University in 1866, and received a master's degree in 1872; he was an instructor in botany at Cornell beginning in 1870.
He then moved to Indianapolis and acquired an MD from Indiana Medical College ( 1875Events January 12 Kwang-su becomes emperor of China. February 27 Newton Booth, 11th Governor of California resigns, having been elected Senator. Lieutenant Governor of California Romualdo Pacheco becomes acting Governor. He is later replaced by elected go), after lecturing in 1874 on marine botany at the Anderson summer school of natural history at Penikese island , MassachusettsMassachusetts is a state of the United States of America, part of the New England region. postal abbreviation is MA and its traditional abbreviation is Mass . It is properly called the Commonwealth of Massachusetts although there is no legal distinction b, and on botany and ichthyology at the Harvard School of Geology in 1875.
He earned Ph.D. from Butler UniversityButler University is a private liberal arts university in Indianapolis, Indiana (USA), founded by abolitionist and attorney Ovid Butler in 1855. It is home to approximately 4000 students, and occupies 20 buildings covering an area of 290 acres (1. The sch in 1878Events January Cleopatra's Needle arrives in London January 9 Humbert I becomes King of Italy January 23 Disraeli orders British fleet to Dardanelles January 28 The Yale News becomes the first daily, college newspaper in the United States. January 31 Turk, taking up a professorship in science at Indiana University the following year. In 1879Events January January 11 Anglo-Zulu War begins January 22 Zulu troops massacre British troops at the Battle of Isandlwana. At Rorke's Drift, outnumbered British soldiers drive the attackers away after hours of fighting. February February 12 At New York C was appointed to a similar chair in Indiana University.
From 1879 through 1881 he was a special agent of the United States census for the marine industries of the Pacific coast, and he also held appointments at various times with United States Fish Commission , beginning in 1877 and extending through 1891.
He was appointed president of Indiana University on January 1, 1885, and then went to Stanford in 1891 to become its first president, later becoming its chancellor in 1913, in order to have more time available for his peace activities (a new trustee by the name of Herbert Hoover helped arrange this). Jordan retired in 1916.
He was president of the California Academy of Sciences from 1896 to 1904 and after 1908. He was also president of the World Peace Foundation from 1910 to 1914 and chaired the World Peace Conference in 1915.
Jordan was an extremely prolific writer, with 650 articles and books on ichthyology alone, and 1,400 other works. As of 1881, Jordan had already published about 250 papers on North American ichthyology, also the Manual of the Vertebrates of the Northern Unites States.
The NOAA research vessel David Starr Jordan is named in his honor, as is the David Starr Jordan High School in Los Angeles, California.