Donaldson, Lauren R. (Lauren Russell), 1903-1998

Lauren R. Donaldson (1903-1998) was a professor of fisheries and director of the Applied Fisheries Laboratory (and its successors) at the University of Washington who was well-known for his selective breeding experiments with salmon and trout, as well as for his involvement in radiobiological studies.

Born near Tracy, Minnesota, Donaldson received his B.A. degree in 1926 from Intermountain Union College in Helena, Montana. After arriving in Seattle in 1930, he earned his M.S. degree (1931) and Ph. D. degree (1939) in Fisheries at the University of Washington, where he joined the faculty in 1932. Donaldson launched a program to improve the size, growth rate, and spawning capacity of rainbow trout, developing a super-strain known as the Donaldson trout. He also secured funding for a hatchery on the campus. In 1943, Donaldson was chosen to direct the Applied Fisheries Laboratory, which had been established at the University of Washington under the authority of the Manhattan District of the Army Corps of Engineers. Its initial purpose was to study the effects of radiation on aquatic organisms. Under the auspices of the Laboratory, Donaldson served as a radiation monitor for Operation Crossroads, the first atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll, and he supervised radiobiological activities on a series of atmospheric nuclear bomb tests conducted at Bikini and Eniwetok Atolls between 1946 and 1958. He continued to head the Laboratory's successor agency, the Laboratory of Radiation Biology (after 1956; renamed the Laboratory of Radiation Ecology in 1966). Donaldson also lent his expertise to the planning of the Seattle Aquarium, serving on the Aquarium Committee of the Washington Oceanographic Commission. Donaldson retired from the faculty in 1973; however, he continued to work on campus as professor emeritus and received several awards after his retirement.

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