Frank Rattray Lillie (1870 - 1947) was an early American zoologist. He pionereed the study of embryology. He had a career long relationship with the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory].

Graduated in 1891 from University of Toronto and became a fellow in zoology at Clark University. In 1892 he was lured by President Harper to the newly founded University of Chicago. In 1894 (at the age of 24) he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology. Between 1894-1899 he was instructor of zoology at University of Michigan. Between 1899-1900 he was Professor of Biology at Vassar College but in 1900 he was called back to Chicago as Assistant Professor of Zoology. In 1906, at the age of 36, he became professor of Embryology. In 1910 he succeeded C.O. Whitman as chairman of the Department of Zoology and continued in that capacity until 1931. From 1931 to 1935 he was Dean of the Division of the Biological Sciences.

From 1935 to 1935 he was served in the joint positions of President of the National Academy of Sciences and Chairman of the United States National Research Council.

He was Director of the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory from 1908-1939(?).

He founded and was first President (1930-1939) of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

His most important academic work--as distinct from his considerable contributions to the institutions of science in America--included experiments on the phenomenon of freemartin in cattle, which led to his discovery of the existence, and analysis of, the operation of the male hormone.

Sources

• "Addresses at the Lillie Memorial Meeting, Woods Hole, August 11, 1948" Biological Bulletin, Vol 95, No2, 151-162, October 1948;
• "Moon Out of the Well; Reminscences," by Mary Prentice Lillie Barrows (daughter of F.R. Lillie), unpublished 1970;
• "The Development of the Chick. An Introduction to Embryology. Lillie, Frank R. New York, Henry Holt, 1908.

References

• Gilbert, S. F. 2003. Edmund Beecher Wilson and Frank R. Lillie and the relationship between evolution and development, Developmental Biology, Seventh edition, Sinauer
• Peters, P. Frank Lillie: The cultivator of an embryonic Woods Hole scientific community. Cape Cod Times, 2000

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