Unit 2 Scientist Spotlight

Douglas W. Smith

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Douglas W. Smith is currently project leader for the Yellowstone Gray Wolf Restoration Project in Yellowstone National Park. He worked as biologist for the project from 1994 to1997 and has been with the program since its inception. Doug has studied wolves for 23 years. Prior to Yellowstone, he worked on Isle Royale with wolves from 1979 to 1992 and also with wolves in Minnesota in 1983. He received his Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Biology from the University of Idaho in 1985. His coursework and fieldwork from 1985 to 1988 earned him a Master of Science in Biology from Michigan Technological University. Smith received his PhD from the University of Nevada, Reno in the program of Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology.

Ynes Mexia

(1870–1938)

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Field: Botany

Career: Botanist

Botanists study all forms of plant life and try to better understand them. They seek to understand how plant life evolves and interacts with the environment as well as help develop better crops and medicines.Ynes Mexia was a botanist, or scientist who studies plants. She started collecting plants when she was fifty years old, and she is credited with collecting over five hundred new species of plants. She gathered almost 150,000 different types of plants from all over Mexico, Central America, South America, and Alaska. At least fifty plant species are named after Ynes Mexia, including an entire plant genus named Mexianthus.

Carlos Juan Finlay

(1833–1915)

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Field:Epidemiology

Career:Epidemiologist

Epidemiologists are experts in disease and how it spreads. They study patterns and causes of disease outbreaks and other health crises in order to help prevent and treat them more effectively.Someone who researches the causes of disease is called an epidemiologist. Carlos Juan Finlay was one such scientist. He focused on a disease called yellow fever, which attacks the liver and makes people’s skin look yellow. This disease can be fatal. Finlay discovered that mosquitoes carry yellow fever from person to person after he realized that yellow fever cases increased during mosquito season. Unfortunately, it took over twenty years for science to accept his research. Once they did, Finlay and other scientists were able to end yellow fever in Cuba. Because the supply of vaccines is limited in certain areas, yellow fever still kills thousands of people in Africa each year. SOURCE: Accelerate Learning ©️ All rights reserved