Julian Sorrell Huxley
Huxley, Sir Julian Sorell (1887–1975), an English biologist, educator, and writer. He became an outstanding popularizer of science and also became noted for his application of scientific findings to the problems of international culture, population growth, and food supply. Huxley was the first director-general of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), 1947–48.
Julian Huxley was born in London. He was a grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley and the older brother of Aldous Leonard Huxley. He attended Eton and Oxford, and lectured at Oxford, 1910–12. He was on the faculty of Rice Institute, Houston, Texas, 1912–16.
After service in Italy during World War I, Huxley was senior demonstrator in zoology at Oxford for six years. He was professor of zoology at King's College, London, from 1925 to 1927, when he left to devote his time to research, writing, and lecturing. His research included investigations in the behavior of birds, the growth rates of the organs of the human body, and the mathematical analysis of body proportions. Huxley was secretary of the Zoological Society of London and director of the London Zoo, 1935–42. He was knighted in 1958.
His writings include: The Individual in the Animal Kingdom (1912); Essays of a Biologist (1923); The Science of Life (with H. G. and G. P. Wells, 1929); Evolution, the Modern Synthesis (1942); Evolution in Action (1953). He edited The Humanist Frame (1962). Memories (1971) and Memories II (1974) are autobiographical.