Wikipedia:Today's featured article/February 5, 2015

Marcus Ward Lyon, Jr, sitting

Marcus Ward Lyon, Jr. (1875–1942) was an American mammalogist, bacteriologist, and pathologist. Born into a military family, he demonstrated an early interest in zoology by collecting local wildlife around his father's army posts. He graduated from Brown University in 1897, and continued his studies at George Washington University while working part-time at the United States National Museum. He received his Ph.D. in 1913. Lyon published many papers on mammalogy, formally describing six species, three genera, and one family. In 1919, he and his wife Martha moved to South Bend, Indiana, to join a newly opened clinic. He began to publish medical studies too, but continued his work in mammalogy, with a particular focus on the local fauna of Indiana. He published more than 160 papers during his career. Lyon acquired the rank of major in the Medical Reserve Corps during World War I, and was appointed president of the American Society of Mammalogists from 1931 to 1932. He was a member of Sigma Xi, the Society of American Bacteriologists, the Indiana Academy of Science, and the Biological Society of Washington. Lyon became a conservationist later in life. (Full article...)

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