Bates, Marston, 1906-1974

Professor of zoology at the University of Michigan, scientist for the Rockefeller Foundation, and scientific writer for both professional and popular publications.

Marston Bates, scientist and writer, was professor of zoology at the University of Michigan from 1952 until his death in 1974. Prior to that time, Bates worked for the United Fruit Company (1928-1931) in Central America, and later with the Rockefeller Foundation (1935-1952). In addition, he was Sheldon Traveling Fellow from Harvard University to Cuba (1934-1935), special assistant to the president of the Rockefeller Foundation (1950-1952), member of the National Research Council's expedition to the Ifalik Atoll in the South Pacific (1953), director of research at the University of Puerto Rico (1956-1957), member of the Committee on Biological and Medical Sciences of the National Science Foundation (1952-1958), trustee of the Cranbrook Institute of Science (1955-1962),and Phi Beta Kappa visiting scholar (1962-1963 and 1968-1969).

Although distinguished for his research on mosquitoes, malaria, and yellow fever, Bates was perhaps best known, in the words of the New York Times, as a "Nontechnical Naturalist", a man who was able to write readable scientific works.