Roger Yate Stanier

Roger Yate Stanier

Roger Yate Stanier, microbiologist, professor (b at Victoria, BC 22 Oct 1916; d at Paris, Fra 29 Jan 1982). Stanier was a major influence in the development of modern microbiology and correlated biochemical, physiological, ecological, and taxonomic studies to provide a remarkably coherent view of the bacteria. He studied at UBC, U of Calif (Los Angeles) and Stanford. His research included oxidative degradation and the adaptation of enzyme pathways, bacterial carotenoids and photosynthesis, and the biology and taxonomy of many groups including photosynthetic bacteria, pseudomonads, cytophagas and cyanobacteria, among other studies. Stanier was professor of microbiology at U of Calif, Berkeley 1947-71. An accomplished interpreter of the biology and taxonomy of bacteria, he expressed his understanding in major essays and reviews (1941-79) and in a remarkable textbook, The Microbial World (1975). The last decade of his life was spent as a professor at the Institut Pasteur, Paris, initiating a study of pure cultures of cyanobacteria (BLUE-GREEN ALGAE). His accomplishments were recognized by awards such as the Légion d'Honneur (France) and by election as a foreign member of the Royal Society, the French Academy of Sciences and of the National Academy of Sciences (US), and as honorary member of the American Society for Microbiology. He worked abroad for most of his life but retained Canadian citizenship.