Raymond Lindeman


Raymond Laurel Lindeman was an ecologist whose graduate research is often credited with being a seminal study in field of ecosystem ecology.

Graduate research work

Lindeman completed his PhD at the University of Minnesota with his thesis work being concerned with the history and ecological dynamics of Cedar Bog Lake, located in what is known today as the University of Minnesota's Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve in central Minnesota.
While a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University with noted limnologist G. Evelyn Hutchinson, Lindeman submitted a chapter of his thesis for publication in the journal Ecology that outlined the Ten percent law. His manuscript was initially rejected for its generalisations but was published after Hutchinson and others were able to convince the editor of the paper's merits. This publication appeared in 1942, shortly after Lindeman's death caused by a rare form of hepatitis.

Legacy

An annual award in Lindeman's honor is given by the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography to the outstanding paper written that year by a young aquatic scientist. Lindeman is also honored today with a lecture series in his name in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, as well as an informative plaque on the same University's Wall of Discovery.

Publications