Lim Boo Liat facts for kids

Lim Boo Liat (born August 21, 1926 – died July 11, 2020) was a famous Malaysian zoologist. He was one of the first to study the amazing variety of animals in the Malay Peninsula and Borneo. He also worked hard to protect nature and its special places.

Lim wrote over 300 science papers and many books. He received many awards for his work. He was the first person from Southeast Asia to become an honorary member of the American Society of Mammalogists. He also won the important Merdeka Award in 2013.

Lim's Early Life

Lim Boo Liat was born on August 21, 1926, in Klang, Selangor. Lessons about nature at school made him love being outdoors. When he was young, he spent time collecting plants and insects.

When Lim was sixteen, World War II came to Malaya. This stopped his studies. He took many different jobs to help his family. He went to Carey Island and helped set up machines to collect salt from the sea. While on the island, he learned to identify animals from the local Mah Meri community.

Lim's Career in Zoology

Even though Lim did not have a formal university education at first, his knowledge of animals from Carey Island helped him. After World War II, he got a temporary job as a lab assistant. This was at the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) in Kuala Lumpur.

His first task was to study scrub typhus. This disease is carried by mites to rats. He also studied small mammals and parasites. This work took him all over Southeast Asia with the Bishop Museum. During this time, he helped start the National Zoo of Malaysia. In the 1950s, he also helped restart the Malaysian Nature Society after it stopped during the war.

Lim took a three-year break in the late 1960s to earn his master's degree. He returned to the IMR in 1972. There, he became a zoologist and led the IMR's Medical Ecology Division.

In 1977, Lim became the head of the Vector Biology Control Research Unit. This unit was part of the World Health Organization in Jakarta, Indonesia. His work there included research on diseases like plague and malaria. He also worked on how to control rodents. He worked at the WHO until he retired in 1987.

After retiring, Lim became an honorary consultant for the Department of Wildlife and National Parks Peninsular Malaysia. He helped set up a research lab for small animals. Throughout his career, he wrote over 300 science papers. He also wrote many books, including Poisonous Snakes of Peninsula Malaysia (1979), Orang Asli Animal Tales (1981), and Turtles of Borneo (1999).

Lim's Education and Studies

In 1959, Lim received a special award called the Sino-British Fellowship Trust Award. He spent a year and a half studying animal ecology. This is how animals interact with their environment. He also studied the classification of mammals. He learned from famous scientists like Charles S. Elton at Oxford University and George Dunnet at Aberdeen University.

Lim received another award, the Medical Research Council Fellowship, in 1969. This helped him finish his master's degree in science from the University of Aberdeen.

He was the first person to earn a Ph.D. from Universiti Sains Malaysia in 1977.

Lim's Legacy and Impact

Lim Boo Liat passed away at his home in Cheras on July 11, 2020. He was 93 years old.

He was the fourth Asian person and the first from Southeast Asia to receive an honorary membership. This was from the American Society of Mammalogists. This award is given to people who have had a great career helping to study mammals.

Many animal species have been named after him to honor his work. These include:

• a snake called Oligodon booliati
• a tiny organism called Sarcocytis booliati
• a frog named Kalophrynus limbooliati
• a flea called Medwayellia limi
• a chigger (a type of mite) named Babiangia booliati
• parasitic worms like Helimonella limbooliati, Plasmodium booliati, and Brienlia booliati

Lim was also highly respected for helping young biologists and conservationists. He guided them and made sure they had chances to publish their scientific work.

Awards and Special Recognition

Lim Boo Liat received many important awards and honors throughout his life:

• 1959: Sino-British Fellowship Trust Award from the British Council
• 1978: Sandosham Gold Medal from the Malaysian Society of Parasitology and Tropical Medicine
• 1995: Science and Technology Award from the Malaysia Toray Science Foundation
• 2003: Honorary Member of the American Society of Mammalogists
• 2007: Elected Fellow of the Akademi Sains Malaysia
• 2007: Spallanzani Award from the North American Society for Bat Research
• 2013: Merdeka Award, in the environment category

External Links

• Read an interview with Dr. Lim Boo Liat from 2014