Bill Ricker facts for kids

William Edwin Ricker (born August 11, 1908, died September 8, 2001) was a famous Canadian scientist. He helped create the field of fisheries science. This science studies how fish populations live and how to manage them.

Ricker was also an expert on insects, especially stoneflies. He is most famous for something called the Ricker model. This model helps predict how many fish will be in a certain area. It's like a special math formula for fish!

He wrote many books and papers. His "Handbook of computation for biological statistics of fish populations" was used by scientists for a very long time.

Amazing Things William Ricker Did

William Ricker was born in Waterdown, Ontario. He was a top expert on stoneflies, which are a type of insect. He created a simple and beautiful way to classify them. Other insect scientists really admired his work.

Helping Fish Populations

In fisheries science, Ricker studied how to manage Canadian fish populations. He wrote an important paper in 1954 about how fish numbers grow. He also wrote his famous book, Handbook of Computation for Biological Statistics of Fish Populations, in 1958.

This handbook was 348 pages long. It became the main guide for students and experts around the world. Even today, it is used in China to teach fisheries science.

Leading a Science Journal

In 1950, Ricker became the editor of the Journal of the Fisheries Research Board. For twelve years, he made this journal one of the most important in the world for fisheries science.

Predicting Food from the Sea

In 1969, Ricker wrote a paper called Food from the sea. He thought that the amount of food we could get from the ocean would be about 150 to 160 million tonnes. This was about 2.5 times more than what was harvested in 1968. He showed that some guesses were too low and others were too high.

Learning Russian for Science

Ricker even taught himself Russian! He did this so he could read the original papers of Feodor Baranov. Baranov was a Russian scientist who also studied fish. In 1973, Ricker published a special Russian-English dictionary. This dictionary helped students understand words used in fisheries and water biology. It is still the only dictionary just for fisheries words.

Awards and Honours

William Ricker received many awards for his important work. In 1970, he won the Flavelle Medal. He also received the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada Gold Medal in 1966. In 1983, he was given the F.E.J. Fry Medal.

In 1969, he got the first Award of Excellence from the American Fisheries Society. After he passed away in 2001, this society created the William E. Ricker Resource Conservation Award in his honour.

Several universities gave him special honorary degrees. In 1986, he was made a member of the Order of Canada. This is one of the highest honours a Canadian can receive.

The Canadian Coast Guard even named one of their fisheries research ships after him. It is called the CCGS W.E. Ricker.