[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 47 (Tuesday, March 14, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E597]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR

                                 ______


                         HON. MICHAEL P. FORBES

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 14, 1995
  Mr. FORBES. Mr. Speaker, I want to speak today on the occasion of the 
retirement of Robert R. Sokal, distinguished professor of ecology and 
evolution, at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where 
his colleagues, former students, and family will gather on March 18, 
1995, to honor him and his accomplishments.
  Dr. Sokal began his teaching career at the University of Kansas in 
the summer of 1951, where he spent 18 years. He came to the University 
at Stony Brook in 1969.
  During his years in academia, he has secured many honors, including 
being a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the 
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy 
of Arts and Sciences, correspondent of the Museum National d'Histoire 
Naturelle in Paris, fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation, fellow of the 
Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford 
University, and winner of the Distinguished Statistical Ecologist Award 
of the International Association for Ecology.
  He has conducted pioneering research in ecological genetics and is a 
founder of the field of numerical taxonomy. He developed important 
statistical methods that he and others have applied to study geographic 
variation, ethnohistory, and mathematical classification.
  A coauthor of 10 books, he has contributed to over 175 learned papers 
in the biological sciences, and has served as editor of the American 
Naturalist, a flagship journal in ecology and evolution.
  He has been elected to high office in many scientific organizations, 
including the American Society of Naturalists, the Society for the 
Study of Evolution, the Classification Society, and the International 
Federation of Classifications Societies.
  At Stony Brook he has served as vice provost for research, department 
chairperson, and professor.
  Born in Vienna, Austria, he and his family fled to Shanghai, China, 
in 1939, to allow his father's release from the infamous Dachau and 
Buchenwald concentration camps. He met his wife, Julie Chenchu Yang, 
when they were both students at St. John's University in Shanghai. They 
have two children, David and Hannahk, and three grandchildren.


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