John Philip Grime is a prominent British ecologist and emeritus professor at the
University of SheffieldThe University of Sheffield is a leading research university, located in Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. Ranked within the World's top 70 Universities published by THE - QS World University Rankings and constantly ranked amongst the top 20 universities in Britain and Europe according to The...
. He is best known for his CSR theory on plant strategies, for the unimodal relationship between species richness and site productivity (the "humped-back model"), for the
Intermediate Disturbance HypothesisThe Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis is an ecological hypothesis which proposes that biodiversity is highest when disturbance is neither too rare nor too frequent. With low disturbance, competitive exclusion by the dominant species arises. With high disturbance, only species tolerant of the...
, and for the DST classification (dominants, subordinates and transients).
Grime's 1979 book
Plant Strategies and Vegetation Processes has been cited more than 1,200 times.
John Philip Grime is a prominent British ecologist and emeritus professor at the
University of SheffieldThe University of Sheffield is a leading research university, located in Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. Ranked within the World's top 70 Universities published by THE - QS World University Rankings and constantly ranked amongst the top 20 universities in Britain and Europe according to The...
. He is best known for his CSR theory on plant strategies, for the unimodal relationship between species richness and site productivity (the "humped-back model"), for the
Intermediate Disturbance HypothesisThe Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis is an ecological hypothesis which proposes that biodiversity is highest when disturbance is neither too rare nor too frequent. With low disturbance, competitive exclusion by the dominant species arises. With high disturbance, only species tolerant of the...
, and for the DST classification (dominants, subordinates and transients).
Grime's 1979 book
Plant Strategies and Vegetation Processes has been cited more than 1,200 times. Together with many influential scientific papers, it has made him a highly cited scientist. In an interview Grime has stated that "Ecology lacks a Periodic Table", quoting
Richard SouthwoodSir Thomas Richard Edmund Southwood DL, FRS was Professor of zoology and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford....
.
Career
He obtained his
Ph.D.Ph.D. or PHD may stand for:* Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group* Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip* PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* Parisada Hindu Dharma, an Indonesian organization...
from
University of SheffieldThe University of Sheffield is a leading research university, located in Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. Ranked within the World's top 70 Universities published by THE - QS World University Rankings and constantly ranked amongst the top 20 universities in Britain and Europe according to The...
in 1960 and joined the staff of the Department of Botany in 1961. He worked at the
Connecticut Agricultural Experiment StationConnecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, Connecticut dates from 1882 when it became the permanent home of the first state agricultural experiment station...
, U.S.A. from 1963 to 1964. He then returned to the
University of SheffieldThe University of Sheffield is a leading research university, located in Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. Ranked within the World's top 70 Universities published by THE - QS World University Rankings and constantly ranked amongst the top 20 universities in Britain and Europe according to The...
and joined the
Unit of Comparative Plant Ecology, which had been founded in 1961 by professor Ian H. Rorison. Grime served as deputy director of the unit 1964-1989 and as director from 1989.
Honours
In 1997, he won the
Marsh Ecology AwardThe Marsh Ecology Award is a prize awarded annually from 1996 onwards to recognise outstanding recent discovery or development which has had a significant impact on the development of the science of ecology or its application. The Award is an honorarium of £ 1,000 and is open to ecologists from...
from the
British Ecological SocietyThe British Ecological Society supports the ecological research and education communities to ensure that they remain vibrant and productive, thus generating new knowledge, skilled people and a greater appreciation of the science of ecology in the wider community.The BES, founded in 1913, was the...
and was awarded honorary membership of the
Ecological Society of AmericaThe Ecological Society of America is a learned society for ecologists located in the United States. It has over 10,000 members.The society was formed at a meeting at Columbus Ohio, on December 28,1915 with the aims being to:...
. He was also Distinguished Visiting Ecologist at
Pennsylvania State UniversityThe Pennsylvania State University is a state-related, land-grant, space grant public research university located in the University Park area and within State College and College Township in Pennsylvania, United States...
in that year. In 1998, he became elected Fellow of the Royal Society and honorary doctor at University of Nijmegen. He has been honorary member of the
British Ecological SocietyThe British Ecological Society supports the ecological research and education communities to ensure that they remain vibrant and productive, thus generating new knowledge, skilled people and a greater appreciation of the science of ecology in the wider community.The BES, founded in 1913, was the...
since 1999.
Selected works
External links