THE 2001 JOSEPH A. CUSHMAN AWARD JOHN W. MURRAY

Abstract

JOHN W. MURRAY The Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research is pleased to announce the selection of Professor John William Murray of the University of Southampton, England, for the 2001 Joseph A. Cushman Award, in recognition of his unique contribution to the study of the foraminifera, particularly in the fields of ecology and paleoecology. John was born in London in 1937, but was evacuated to Bury in the north of England during WW2 where he lived until 1953, after which he moved back to sunnier climes in Worthing on the south coast. Since he can remember he was always keen on microscopy. In his teens his parents had given him a biological microscope and he spent many happy hours making preparations of rocks and biological materials to examine. In 1956 he went up to Imperial College of Science & Technology, University of London, to study a B.Sc. degree in Pure Geology, followed by a Ph.D. in Micropaleontology in 1961, under David Carter. Whilst at Imperial College he seems to have been an exemplary student and won many medals and prizes. John had been introduced to foraminifera as a first year undergraduate and has been fascinated by them ever since! In his final undergraduate year he undertook a project on Cretaceous planktonic foraminifera from the very first borehole drilled in connection with the Channel Tunnel (to link England with France). In 1959, when he started his research, there were few published papers on foraminiferal ecology (mainly by Phleger and Lankford). For his Ph.D. he chose to study the ecology of a small estuary (Christchurch Harbour) in southern England. Apart from collecting samples over four seasons and staining them for living forms, he measured the temperature and salinity of the bottom water, the dissolved oxygen content and the pH, and then tried to …