Dr. Edgar Barton Worthington, M.A., Ph.D., (Cantab)., CBE (13 January 190514 October 2001) was a British ecologist and science administrator.
His parents were Edgar and Amy Worthington. His early education was at Rugby School, before he went up to gain a First in Zoology at Gonville and Cauis College at Cambridge.[1] After university, his work alternated between Britain and Africa. He took part in an African lakes expedition in 192731; and in an African research expedition 193437, for which he was awarded the Mungo Park Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society.
He was secretary to and first full-time director of the Freshwater Biological Association 193746. He returned to Africa in the late 1940s as science and development advisor. He was deputy scientific director for the Nature Conservancy 195765, and scientific director of the International Biological Programme (IBP) 196474. His interests included water biology and international nature conservation, including the environmental impacts of drainage and irrigation. He was appointed CBE in 1977.[2] [3]
In 1930, Worthington married Stella Johnson, who had been a member of the earlier expeditions he had undertaken and who shared many of his interests. In 1933, they jointly published the book Inland Waters of Africa. They had three daughters, all of whom followed their parents' scientific inclinations. Stella Worthington died in 1978. Two years later, he married Harriet Stockton. He died on 14 December 2001.[1]
Worthington is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of venomous viper, Bitis worthingtoni,[4] which is endemic to the high central Rift Valley of Kenya; and in the names of the Lake Victoria endemic cichlids Haplochromis bartoni and H. worthingtoni.[5]