Edwin Copeland

{{Short description|American botanist (1873–1964)}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Edwin B. Copeland | image = File:Edwin Copeland.jpg | image_size = | caption = Edwin Copeland, circa 1910 | birth_date = {{birth date|1873|09|30}} | birth_place = Monroe, Wisconsin | death_date = {{death date and age|1964|03|16|1873|9|30}} | death_place = Chico, California | citizenship = USA | nationality = | ethnicity = | field = Botany Agriculture | work_institution = University of the Philippines Los Baños University of California, Berkeley | alma_mater = Stanford University University of Halle | thesis_title = thesis on the influence of light and temperature on turgor | thesis_year = 1896 | doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_students = | known_for = Founding the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture; study of ferns | author_abbreviation_bot = Copel. | author_abbreviation_zoo = | prizes = | religion = | footnotes = | spouse = Ethel Faulkner Copeland | children = Herbert Copeland }} '''Edwin Bingham Copeland''' (September 30, 1873 – March 16, 1964) was an American botanist and agriculturist.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Copeland, Edwin Bingham|magazine=International Who's Who|year=1912|page=312|url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89097340061;view=1up;seq=330}}</ref> He is known for founding the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture at Los Baños, Laguna and for being one of the America's leading pteridologists (one who studies ferns).<ref name=Wagner />

==Life== In 1903, he and his family moved to the Philippines, where he worked as a Systematic Botanist for the Bureau of Science.<ref name="Wagner">Wagner, W.H. Jr. 1964. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1545997 Edwin Bingham Copeland (1873–1964) and his contributions to Pteridology]. American Fern Journal 54(4): 177–188.</ref> In 1909, he founded the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture at Los Baños, Laguna, now part of the University of the Philippines Los Baños, and served as its dean and also as a professor of plant physiology for eight years (1909–1917). In 1917, he returned to the United States and was a leading rice grower in Chico, California.<ref name="Wagner" /> In 1927, he began work as an Associate Curator at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1931, he worked for the Department of Agriculture of the Philippines, retiring in 1935.<ref name=Wagner /> After retiring he returned to UC Berkeley and became a permanent Research Associate of the Department of Biology of the University of California.<ref name=Wagner /> He is best known among American botanists for this latter period at UC.<ref name=Wagner /> He was elected an Honorary Member of the American Fern Society in 1948.

During his career he described 35 new genera and some 600 new species of ferns.<ref name=Wagner /> His personal herbarium totaled approximately 25,000 species and is now at the University of Michigan Herbarium.<ref name=Wagner /><ref name="Collections">[http://herbarium.lsa.umich.edu/herb/collections/default.asp Collections] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151028132206/http://herbarium.lsa.umich.edu/herb/collections/default.asp |date=2015-10-28 }}, University of Michigan Herbarium.</ref> He wrote numerous articles and several books including "Elements of Philippine Agriculture" (1908), "The Coconut" (three editions, 1914, 1921, and 1931), "Rice" (1924), "Fern" (1964) and "Natural Conduct" (1928), a book on practical ethics.<ref name=Wagner /> He issued the exsiccata ''Pteridophyta Philippinensia exsiccata'' (c. 1920).<ref>{{cite web |title=Pteridophyta Philippinensia exsiccata: IndExs ExsiccataID=92187264 |website=IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae |publisher=Botanische Staatssammlung München |url=https://www.botanischestaatssammlung.de/DatabaseClients/IndExs/Exsiccatae_IndExs_Details.jsp?ExsiccataID=92187264 |access-date=19 July 2024}}</ref> In a letter during his final months, a friend C.V. Morton wrote, "You have the consolation of knowing that your name is in constant use by fern students the world over."<ref name=Wagner /> The fungus genus ''Copelandia'' was named after him.

On August 8, 1899, Copeland and partner E. N. Henderson were the first climbers known to reach summit of Junction Peak, a thirteener in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.

His father was the zoologist Herbert Edson Copeland (1849–1876) and he was the father of biologist Herbert Copeland. He was married to Ethel Faulkner Copeland.

==Legacy== The following species of plants are named after him: * ''Saurauia copelandii'' Elmer

== References == {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Copeland, Edwin}} Category:1873 births Category:1964 deaths Category:American pteridologists Category:American people in the American Philippines Category:Botanists active in the Philippines Category:People from Monroe, Wisconsin Category:American botanists Category:Sierra Club people Category:American mountain climbers Category:Stanford University alumni Category:University of Halle alumni Category:History of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Category:University of the Philippines Los Baños Category:People from Chico, California