Sir Julian Huxley (Sir Julian Sorrell Huxley) Biography

British biologist and writer, brother of Aldous Huxley, born in London, educated at Eton and at Balliol College, Oxford. Of his many public appointments he was professor of Zoology at King's College, London (1925–7), secretary of the Zoological Society (1935–42), and Director-General of UNESCO (1946–8). With his rare gift for communicating the findings of science to the layreader without compromising scientific exactitude he became widely known through his broadcasts and for several books that have lasted despite subsequent scientific advance. These include Essays of a Biologist (1923), Animal Biology (1927; with J. B. S. Haldane), The Science of Life (1929; with G. P. and H. G. Wells), Soviet Genetics and World Science (1949), and Evolution in Action (1953). Bird-Watching and Bird Behaviour (1930) and The Captive Shrew and Other Poems of a Biologist (1932), amongst other works, reveal his fascination for the natural world.