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= Alice Middleton Boring = From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigationJump to search

Alice Middleton Boring ( February 22, 1883 – September 18, 1955) was an American Biologist, Zoologist, and herpetologist. Boring was a leader within her field and published numerous scientific studies and journal articles about amphibians and fowl. She taught at in the United States but spent a majority of her career teaching in China where she helped to develop the Biology department at Peking Union Medical College and Yenching University/

Early Life:

Alice Middleton Boring was born in 1883 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her family originally settled in the Americas in the 17th century. Her relatives were involved in the Moravian Church, which would greatly influence Alice's upbringing. Her father Edwin Boring sent all of his children to the Central Friends School, a coeducational Quakers school where Boring excelled in the sciences. All of her siblings were educated up through high school. Her brother Edwin Boring attended Cornell University, and became a prominent professor of Psychology at Harvard University. Her sister Katherine did not graduate from university but instead married. Her elder sister Lydia also attended Bryn Mawr College and graduated in 1896. Lydia became a latin and classics teacher. Following in her sister's footsteps, Alice applied to and enrolled at Bryn Mawr. Bryn Mawr who was part of the Seven Sisters (colleges) consortium and Bryn Mawr was founded by Quakers, which further spurned her interest in applying there. She had access to classes at the neighboring Haverford College, which is part of the Bi-College Consortium, Swarthmore College and University of Pennsylvania, which are part of the Quaker Consortium. The close relationship between these colleges allowed for Boring to have access to a wider array of classes and instructors. She would later take advantage of the relationship of the Quaker Consortium by working in the labs at University of Pennsylvania. She started her freshman year in 1900. While at Bryn Mawr, Boring engaged in numerous collegiate traditions including Lantern Night, Step Sing, and May Day. She was given a light blue lantern during her freshman year to signify the knowledge she would gain while studying there, this along with other traditions are still maintained by the college. Even after her graduation, Boring was active in the alumni association, she attended alumni weekends and shared details of her adventures in China to the student newspaper. While at Bryn Mawr she studied under the geneticist Nettie Stevens, who herself had received her PhD from Bryn Mawr College in 1903, and Boring also worked with the evolutionary Biologist Thomas Hunt Morgan. Morgan and Boring would co-write an article on frog embryos. In 1904 Boring would publish her first academic work entitled, "Closure of Longitudinally Split Tubularia Stems."

Graduate Studies:

After graduating from Bryn Mawr College, Boring pursued her masters in Biology at Bryn Mawr College, where she would continue to work with Stevens and Morgan. Boring received her master of Biology in 1905 from Bryn Mawr. After graduation Boring did attend University of Pennsylvania for less than a year where she studied under Edwin Conklin, however she decided to continue her studies at Bryn Mawr after Conklin left the university. She would remain lifelong friends with Conklin. After Boring finished her dissertation but before she graduated from her post doctoral studies at Bryn Mawr College, Boring would teach biology for a year at Vassar College. In 1907 Boring would attend University of Würzburg and Naples Zoological Station. While in Europe Boring would study under Theodor Boveri and Anton Dohrn. Boring was fluent in German. After studying in Italy and Germany, Boring would graduate from Bryn Mawr College in 1910 with her PhD.

Early Career and Research:

After Boring's graduation from Bryn Mawr College she would go on to teach at University of Maine as an instructor in 1911. Boring was then made an assistant professor from 1911-1913 and then became an associate professor from 1913-1918. While at University of Maine, Boring would collaborate and work with Raymond Pearl, and co-author numerous papers with him, including a paper on Ascaris. She would also collaborate with Pearl and co-author papers on Fowl and became lifelong friends with him. Besides teaching Boring became a supporter of the Women's suffrage movement.

Research and Career in China:

In 1918 Boring applied to the Rockefeller Foundation, for an appointment at a newly founded medical college in Peking, China. She would teach biology to the premedical college students at Peking Union Medical College. Her acceptance to the foundation's program would create a long term love affair between Boring and China. Boring, unlike many people of the time, respected China's rich, complex and ancient history. Boring arrived to China 6 years after China had become a republic. Boring would bare witness to all of these changes within China during her time there. Boring struggled with the missionary roots of Peking Union Medical College, which clashed with her Quaker upbringing. Furthermore the Board of Peking Union Medical College, which was run by the Foreign Mission of the Presbyterian Church, were hesitant to employ Boring, as well as allow female students into the college. Despite these challenges, Boring flourished at the college and was remorseful to return back to the United States.

Boring would teach at Peking Union Medical College for two years before returning to teach zoology at Wellesley College. After her return her father Edwin Boring died in 1920, after his estate was settled Boring would be financially secure for the rest of her life.

Disappointed after returning to the United States, Boring worked hard to return to China. Wellesley had a close relationship with Yenching University, which allowed Boring to have the ability to return to China. Boring was accepted to a two year teaching post at Peking University, which would later be known as Yenching University. Peking Union Medical College would be absorbed by Peking university, something that Boring wase instrumental with in the negotiations. Boring also advocated for a local women's university to be given the same access to education opportunities as their male colleagues. Boring also took the opportunity while living in China to travel throughout the country and also visit Mongolia. Boring also remained dedicated to teaching during the Chinese civil war, which saw a wave of anti-Foreign sentiment, political instability, and violence. Boring took this in her stride and remained unhindered in her ability to teach, despite gun fire often being heard outside of the universities walls. After her initial two years of teaching were up, she decided to stay at the Peking university, and not return to her position at Wellesley College. Boring would take furlough from 1928-1929, to see her family, clean out her office at Wellesley and to send more books back to China. During this year of furlough she would continue her research at the University of Pennsylvania, where she would work with and consult with Clifford H. Pope and G.K. Noble. In 1930 she became the acting dean of the College of Natural Sciences at Peking University. During the Great Depression Boring was still able to secure foreign funds to help support Peking university. Boring was a stabilizing influence to the college, even while China was being occupied and colonized by Japan, Boring remained dedicated to teaching her students. Boring also would continue to research. Between 1930-1950 Boring would publish 21 papers in Peking Natural History Bulletin Boring would teach a plethora of students who would go onto have prestigious careers, including Wu Jieping, Tang Xi Xue, Laurence T. Wu, Liu Chengzhao, Frederick F. Kao.



Borings work would be interrupted during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Despite the occupation of Beijing by the Japanese, Boring continued to teach. She also continued to publish research with Pope and continued to work on the taxonomy of Chinese amphibians. She specifically study the common toad (Bufo bufo), and the (yellow frog) Rana nigrolineata, which led her to publish numerous journal articles. Like the collaborative work that she had conducted with her professors at Bryn Mawr College, Boring would collaborate and publish articles with her own students.

After Pearl Harbor things would drastically change for Boring. She would be forced to move away from her housing at Yenching University and instead to a foreign compound. In March 1942 she and her foreign faculty were forced to leave their teaching positions at the university. On March 25, Boring boarded a Japanese trucks that would take her and other foreigners to the Weihsien Civilian Assembly Center. On August 24, Boring would be repatriated back to the United States.

Boring would teach histology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeon which ended in June, 1945. She would then teach as a visiting professor at Mount Holyoke College as a visiting professor of Zoology. Boring would return to Yenching University in 1946 when it was safe for foreigners to return. However she found herself in the middle of the Chinese Civil War. In 1950 Boring would leave China for the last time. She returned to the United States, and began taking care of her ill sister. In 1951 through1953 Boring would teach at Smith College. As she reached semi-retirement, Boring became heavily involved with and worked with numerous charities including League of Women Voters, American Friends Service Committee, The Cambridge Civic Association, and American Civil Liberties Union. She was diagnosed with Cerebral arteriovenous malformation during the 1951. She died on September 18, 1955 from a suspected Cerebral thrombosis.

Her Continued Legacy:

Boring dedication to the study of Chinese amphibians continues to be instrumental in the study of Herpetology, her studies and research continues to be cited. Boring has a frog named after her, called the Vibrissaphora boringii.