Allan J. Baker

Allan John Baker (9 July 1943 – 20 November 2014) was an Canadian ornithologist of New Zealand descent. He was an authority on wading birds, in particular studies on red knots were one of his main research fields.

Career

Baker grew up on a farm near Collingwood, Golden Bay, New Zealand. In 1972, he promoted to Ph.D. on the University of Canterbury in Christchurch with a thesis on the ecology and evolution of oystercatchers. In the same year he moved to Canada where he started as assistant curator of the ornithology department at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. In 1976, he became associate curator and head of the Ornithology Department. In 1995, he became director of the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Biology and in 2004 head of the Department of Biology at the Royal Ontario Museum. In 1981, he was promoted to senior curator.

Accolades

In 2006, he received the Speirs Award by the Society of Canadian Ornithologists. In 2007, he was awarded with the Brewster Medal of the American Ornithologists' Union.

References

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