science

Ray Beverton

Ray Beverton is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ray Beverton rather than just read about it. In short: Raymond (Ray) John Heaphy Beverton CBE FRS (29 August 1922 – 23 July 1995) was an important founder of fisheries science. He is best known for the book On the Dynamics of Exploited Fish Populations (1957) which he wrote with Sidney Holt.

Key takeaways

Ray Beverton belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Ray Beverton to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Ray Beverton from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Raymond (Ray) John Heaphy Beverton CBE FRS (29 August 1922 – 23 July 1995) was an important founder of fisheries science. He is best known for the book On the Dynamics of Exploited Fish Populations (1957) which he wrote with Sidney Holt. The book is a cornerstone of modern fisheries science and remains much used today. Beverton's life and achievements are described in detail in several obituaries written by prominent figures in fisheries science.

Achievements Much of the foundations of quantitative fisheries science were laid out in On the Dynamics of Exploited Fish Populations which Ray Beverton and Sidney Holt wrote at the Fisheries Laboratory, Lowestoft (UK). In his review of the 1993 reprint of the book, Ray Hilborn writes "It is remarkable how the book has stood the test of time and still provides a survey of the important topics in fisheries management". The book has a new reprint from 2004, with a foreword by Sidney Holt. Beverton was also one of the first to acknowledge the variation of life histories that exists in fish, and the importance of this in fisheries management. This was the topic of the symposium Building on Beverton's legacy: Life history variation and fisheries management, organised in 2003 during the 133rd annual meeting of the American Fisheries Society. The legacy of the 1957 Beverton and Holt treatise is commemorated in the volume Advances in Fisheries Science. 50 years on from Beverton and Holt. The volume includes a foreword by Sidney Holt. Beverton was the editor of Journal du Conseil, now ICES Journal of Marine Science, from 1983 to 1991. Among many other posts, he was the Deputy Director of the Fisheries Laboratory, Lowestoft. Beverton stayed active until his late years; he was involved in several papers published after his death, the last one nine years afterwards. Outside fisheries science, Beverton is best known for the Beverton–Holt model. In population ecology the model is used as a stand-alone discrete time population model or as a model of density dependence in larger population models. Originally the model had a more specific usage; it was devised to describe the dependence of recruitment on spawning stock biomass.

Beverton Medal The Fisheries Society of the British Isles awards each year the Beverton Medal "to a distinguished scientist for a lifelong contribution to all aspects of the study of fish biology and/or fisheries science, with a focus on ground-breaking research." The history of the medal goes back to 1995 when the society decided to award a medal to an individual who had contributed significantly to fisheries biology. Ray Beverton was the first recipient, but he died soon afterwards. The medal was then named in his honour.

Awards received Honorary DSc from the University of Wales (1989).

References

External links E. Anderson: Standing on the shoulders of giants. ICES Insight, Issue Number 48 – September 2011, pp. 4–11.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ray Beverton

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ray Beverton claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ray Beverton before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ray Beverton ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ray Beverton

In research: Ray Beverton appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Ray Beverton in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Ray Beverton is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1922 births, 1995 deaths, 20th-century British zoologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ray Beverton outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Ray Beverton in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ray Beverton means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Ray Beverton out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ray Beverton in simple terms?

Why does Ray Beverton matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ray Beverton?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ray Beverton.