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The 1999 Joseph A. Cushman Award
John J. Lee |
The Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research announces the selection of Professor John J. Lee for the 1999 Joseph A. Cushman Award, in recognition of his lifetime contributions to foraminiferal research. John’s lifelong fascination with science began during his ninth summer, when he found fossil brachiopods in New York’s Catskill Mountains (USA). His father took John and his fossils to the American Museum of Natural History, where Dr. Normal Newell took the time to examine and explain the child’s treasures. John took away a crucial lesson and that was, no matter how busy as a parent or scientist, one must take time to engage and encourage youngsters. A lifelong New Yorker, John earned a B.S. in Biology in 1955 from Queens College. He briefly left New York to pursue a Master’s degree in Zoology from the University of Massachusetts, then returned home to attend New York University, where he earned his Ph.D. in Biology and Proto-zoology in 1960. His dissertation topic included research on the morphology, physiology and nutrition of parabasalians, parasites in snakes. Although he sampled a variety of deadly snakes, including cobras, a bite from a water snake nearly killed him and changed his career path to the more benign realm of foraminifers. John was working at Haskins Laboratory under the direction of Drs. Seymour Hunter and Luigi Provasoli, who were pioneers in protozoan culture, when Dr. Brooks Ellis of the American Museum of Natural History approached John’s mentors with a request from Carter Oil Company. Dr. Ellis was seeking someone to study the foraminifers that passed through the finest sediment sieves. A key question needed to be addressed: "Were these tiny specimens juveniles or were they very small adults?" Library research led John to Karl Grell’s studies on rotaliellids. John was soon growing these foraminifers in a laboratory at the American Museum, firmly establishing his relationship with that institution while publishing papers on foraminiferal culture and physiology. Shortly thereafter, Allen Bé, from Columbia University’s Lamont Dougherty Geological Observatory, sought John’s collaboration to work on planktonic foraminifers. One of their first projects was a histological and cytological study of Globigerina bulloides and Globigerinoides ruber. At this same time, the early 1960’s, Dr. Ronald Hedley of the British Museum of Natural History published a review of the biology of foraminifers in which he questioned the existence of algal symbiosis in foraminifers. Hedley pointed out that turn-of-the-century observations on possible symbionts in foraminifers had not been substantiated by modern research. John knew that Hedley was correct with regard to the literature, but was wrong in his doubts about symbiosis. Dr. Lee, who had already documented symbionts in planktonic foraminifers, had also observed what he believed to be symbionts within larger foraminifers during trips to the Florida Keys (USA). He took Dr. Hedley’s skepticism as a challenge. With a graduate student, William Zucker, John went to Biscayne Bay to collect live larger foraminifers and to isolate their symbionts. They promptly published evidence for a chlorophyte symbiont in Archaias, and subsequently named the flagellate Chlamydomonas hedleyi, in honor of Prof. Hedley and his challenge. Dr. Hedley returned the favor. John had isolated foraminifers that he had called Rosalina floridana and revealed their life cycle in culture. When Hedley redescribed several Rosalina species that had all been called R. floridana, he named the species, which John had worked on, R. leei. Based on his research on the biology of larger foraminifers in the Florida Keys, Prof. Lee speculated that algal symbiosis played a key role in the evolution of the larger foraminifers. This idea attracted the interest of Dr. Moshe Shilo and Prof. Zeev Reiss, who believed that Hebrew University’s marine laboratory on the Gulf of Aqaba/Eilat had tremendous potential as a base for studies on the biology and ecology of larger foraminifers. Prof. Lee’s introduction to the H. Steinitz Marine laboratory in Eilat resulted in more than two decades of work on the diatom symbionts of the larger rotaliine foraminifers. One of the more amazing discoveries of his work is the variety of diatom symbionts that live in Amphistegina, Heterostegina, and other larger taxa. While attempting to understand the sources of the variability of diatom symbionts, Prof. Lee examined the microalgal communities living on macroalgae and seagrasses inhabited by the larger foraminifers. Tiny Rosalina and other microforaminifers were everywhere. His cutting-edge research on the larger foraminifers brought him back to Rosalina, and he has recently worked out the life cycle of R. eilatiana. Prof. Lee’s remarkable career spans four decades. He is equally an educator and a researcher, exemplifying how teaching contributes to innovative research and the converse. He began his teaching career as an instructor at Queens College in 1959, moving to New York University in 1961 as an Assistant Professor. He joined City College of the City University of New York in 1966, where he served first as an Associate Professor, then Full Professor, and now as Distinguished Professor. Professor Lee is a tireless proponent of protozoan research, with more than 100 published journal articles. The many books that he has written or edited repeatedly demonstrate his dedication as an educator as well as researcher. A few of his titles include Microbiology(1983), Illustrated Guide to the Protozoa(1985), Microbes in Action 4th Edition(1991), Biology of Foraminifers(1991), and Protocols in Protozoology(1992). He has also organized dozens of sessions at Protozoology Congresses, International Symposia on Living and Fossil Diatoms, Symbiosis, and Endocytobiology. One of his current projects is Biology of Foraminifers Volume 2, which emerged from the International Protozoology Congress in Sydney, Australia, in 1997. More than 30 graduate students have benefited from Professor Lee’s mentoring. His Ph.D. students included Maria Correia, Walter Faber, Guodmundar Guodmundsson, Robert Koestler, Marie McEnery, Walter Muller, Fernando Nieto, Stanley Pierce, Howard Rubin, Patricia Sullivan Duetsch, Andrew Symons, Marilyn Tentchoff, and William Zucker. Graduate researchers from other universities who have benefited from his mentorship include Benno ter Kuile (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Jan Pawlowski (University of Geneva), and Helen Talge (University of South Florida). Professor Lee exemplifies "contribution to foraminiferal research", through his research and collaborations, through his work as an educator and mentor, and through his uncountable professional service activities. For these reasons and many more, the Board of Directors of the Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research is pleased to present Prof. John J. Lee with the 1999 Joseph A. Cushman Award. Pamela Hallock Journal of Foraminiferal Research, January 2000, v. 30, no. 1, p. 1-2
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