79 Facts About Julian Huxley

Sir Julian Sorell Huxley was an English evolutionary biologist, eugenicist and internationalist.

Julian Huxley was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth-century modern synthesis.

Julian Huxley was secretary of the Zoological Society of London, the first director of UNESCO, a founding member of the World Wildlife Fund, the president of the British Eugenics Society, and the first president of the British Humanist Association.

Julian Huxley was knighted in the 1958 New Year Honours, a hundred years after Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace announced the theory of evolution by natural selection.

Julian Huxley came from the Julian Huxley family on his father's side and the Arnold family on his mother's.

Julian Huxley's great-grandfather was Thomas Arnold of Rugby School, his great-uncle Matthew Arnold, and his aunt, Mrs Humphry Ward.

Julian Huxley's father was writer and editor Leonard Julian Huxley and his mother was Julia Arnold, a graduate of Somerville College, Oxford, who had gained a First in English Literature there in 1882.

Julian Huxley was born on 22 June 1887, at the London house of his aunt.

Julian Huxley's mother opened a school in Compton, Guildford in 1902 and died in 1908, when he was 21.

In 1911, Julian Huxley became informally engaged to Kathleen Fordham, whom he had met some years earlier when she was a pupil at Prior's Field, Compton, the school his mother had founded and run.

In 1919, Julian Huxley married Juliette Baillot a French Swiss woman whom he had met while she was employed as a governess at Garsington Manor, the country house of Lady Ottoline Morrell.

Julian Huxley was later unfaithful to Baillot and told her that he wanted an open marriage.

Huxley described himself in print as suffering from manic depression, and his wife's autobiography suggests that Julian Huxley suffered from a bipolar disorder.

Julian Huxley relied on his wife to provide moral and practical support throughout his life.

Julian Huxley's ashes are buried with his wife, son Anthony, parents and brother at the Huxley family grave in Watts Cemetery, Compton.

Julian Huxley grew up at the family home in Shackleford, Surrey, England, where he showed an early interest in nature, as he was given lessons by his grandfather, Thomas Henry Julian Huxley.

Julian Huxley's grandfather took him to visit Joseph Dalton Hooker at Kew.

At the age of thirteen Julian Huxley attended Eton College as a King's Scholar, and continued to develop scientific interests; his grandfather had influenced the school to build science laboratories much earlier.

Julian Huxley developed a particular interest in embryology and protozoa and developed a friendship with the ornithologist William Warde Fowler.

Julian Huxley was awarded a scholarship to spend a year at the Naples Marine Biological Station, where he developed his interest in developmental biology by investigating sea squirts and sea urchins.

In 1912 Julian Huxley was asked by Edgar Odell Lovett to set up the Department of Biology at the newly created Rice Institute in Houston, Texas, which he accepted, planning to start the following year.

Julian Huxley made an exploratory trip to the United States in September 1912, visiting a number of leading universities as well as the Rice Institute.

In September 1916 Julian Huxley returned to England from Texas to assist in the war effort.

Julian Huxley was commissioned a temporary second lieutenant in the Royal Army Service Corps on 25 May 1917, and was transferred to the General List, working in the British Army Intelligence Corps from 26 January 1918, first in Sussex, and then in northern Italy.

Julian Huxley was advanced in grade within the Intelligence Corps on 3 May 1918, relinquished his intelligence appointment on 10 January 1919 and was demobilised five days later, retaining his rank.

Julian Huxley took the place of his old tutor Geoffrey Smith, who had been killed in the battle of the Somme on the Western Front.

Julian Huxley participated in the 1921 Oxford University Spitsbergen expedition as one of the main scientists, together with Alexander Carr-Saunders.

For some time Julian Huxley retained his room at King's College, continuing as Honorary Lecturer in the Zoology Department, and from 1927 to 1931 he was Fullerian Professor of Physiology at the Royal Institution, where he gave an annual lectures series, but this marked the end of his life as a university academic.

In 1929, after finishing work on The Science of Life, Julian Huxley visited East Africa to advise the Colonial Office on education in British East Africa.

Julian Huxley discovered that the wildlife on the Serengeti plain was almost undisturbed because the tsetse fly prevented human settlement there.

Julian Huxley tells about these experiences in Africa view, and so does his wife.

Julian Huxley left no account of what transpired, but he was evidently not successful, and returned to England to resume his marriage in 1931.

In 1931 Julian Huxley visited the USSR at the invitation of Intourist, where initially he admired the results of social and economic planning on a large scale.

In 1935 Julian Huxley was appointed secretary to the Zoological Society of London, and spent much of the next seven years running the society and its zoological gardens, the London Zoo and Whipsnade Park, alongside his writing and research.

For example, Julian Huxley introduced a whole range of ideas designed to make the Zoo child-friendly.

Julian Huxley fenced off the Fellows' Lawn to establish Pets Corner; he appointed new assistant curators, encouraging them to talk to children; he initiated the Zoo Magazine.

In 1941 Julian Huxley was invited to the United States on a lecturing tour, and generated some controversy by saying that he thought the United States should join World War II: a few weeks later came the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Since Julian Huxley had taken a half-salary cut at the start of the war, and no salary at all whilst he was in America, the council's action was widely read as a personal attack on Julian Huxley.

Julian Huxley was completely disabled, treated with ECT, and took a full year to recover.

In 1945, Julian Huxley proposed to melt the polar ice caps by igniting atomic bombs to moderate the world climate in the northern hemisphere, and permit shipping across the top of the world.

Julian Huxley, who had twice visited the Soviet Union, was originally not anti-communist, but the ruthless adoption of Lysenkoism by Joseph Stalin ended his tolerant attitude.

Julian Huxley wrote the foreword to The Phenomenon of Man and was bitterly attacked by his rationalist friends for doing so.

Julian Huxley was a friend and mentor of the biologists and Nobel laureates Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen, and taught and encouraged many others.

Julian Huxley's outlook was international, and somewhat idealistic: his interest in progress and evolutionary humanism runs through much of his published work.

Julian Huxley was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto.

Julian Huxley was a major player in the mid-twentieth-century modern evolutionary synthesis.

Julian Huxley was a prominent populariser of biological science to the public, with a focus on three aspects in particular.

Julian Huxley was therefore able to learn from and influence other scientists, naturalists and administrators.

Julian Huxley was one of the main architects of the modern evolutionary synthesis which took place around the time of World War II.

Julian Huxley tackled the subject of evolution at full length, in what became the defining work of his life.

Julian Huxley's role was that of a synthesiser, and it helped that he had met many of the other participants.

An analysis of the "authorities cited" index of Evolution the modern synthesis shows indirectly those whom Julian Huxley regarded as the most important contributors to the synthesis up to 1941.

Julian Huxley's book is not strong in palaeontology, which illustrates perfectly why Simpson's later works were such an important contribution.

Julian Huxley coined the terms the new synthesis and evolutionary synthesis; he invented the term cline in 1938 to refer to species whose members fall into a series of sub-species with continuous change in characters over a geographical area.

Julian Huxley noted how widespread polymorphism is in nature, with visible morphism much more prevalent in some groups than others.

Julian Huxley's humanism came from his appreciation that mankind was in charge of its own destiny, and this raised the need for a sense of direction and a system of ethics.

Julian Huxley has developed a new method of evolution: the transmission of organized experience by way of tradition, which.

Julian Huxley had a close association with the British rationalist and secular humanist movements.

Julian Huxley was closely involved with the International Humanist and Ethical Union.

In 1962 Julian Huxley accepted the American Humanist Association's annual "Humanist of the Year" award.

Julian Huxley presided over the founding Congress of the International Humanist and Ethical Union and served with John Dewey, Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann on the founding advisory board of the First Humanist Society of New York.

Julian Huxley took interest in investigating the claims of parapsychology and spiritualism.

Julian Huxley joined the Society for Psychical Research in 1928.

Julian Huxley was caught masquerading as a spirit, in a white nightshirt.

In 1952, Julian Huxley wrote the foreword to Donovan Rawcliffe's The Psychology of the Occult.

Julian Huxley was a prominent member of the British Eugenics Society, and was vice-president and President.

Julian Huxley thought eugenics was important for removing undesirable variants from the human gene pool, though after World War II he believed race was a meaningless concept in biology, and its application to humans was highly inconsistent.

Julian Huxley was an outspoken critic of the most extreme eugenicism in the 1920s and 1930s.

Julian Huxley was, nevertheless, a leading figure in the eugenics movement.

Julian Huxley gave the Galton memorial lecture twice, in 1936 and 1962.

Julian Huxley was one of many intellectuals at the time who believed that the lowest class in society was genetically inferior.

Julian Huxley advocated ensuring the lower classes have a nutritious diet, education and facilities for recreation:.

Julian Huxley shared Natures enthusiasm for birth control, and 'voluntary' sterilization.

Julian Huxley suggested the word 'race' be replaced with ethnic group.

Julian Huxley won the second Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for We Europeans in 1937.

In 1951, Julian Huxley popularized the term transhumanism for the view that humans should better themselves through science and technology, possibly including eugenics, but, importantly, the improvement of the social environment.

In 1934 Julian Huxley collaborated with the naturalist Ronald Lockley to create for Alexander Korda the world's first natural history documentary The Private Life of the Gannets.

Julian Huxley had given talks on the radio since the 1920s, followed by written versions in The Listener.

In 1937 Julian Huxley was invited to deliver the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture on Rare Animals and the Disappearance of Wild Life.