Obituary

Neil Campbell, who taught the non-majors Introductory Biology course at Cornell from 1977 to 1980 and who was widely known for the textbook Biology, used by biology majors nationwide, died on Oct. 21 following a heart attack. He was 58.

An expert on the structure and function of plant salt glands, Campbell was an assistant professor at Cornell. He left Ithaca to become professor of biology and chair of the Department of Biology at San Bernadino Valley (Calif.) Community College, where he stayed until 1989. For the last 15 years, he had been a visiting scholar in botany and plant sciences at the University of California-Riverside.

While at Cornell, Campbell contracted with publisher Addison Wesley/Benjamin Cummings to write an introductory biology text. The first edition of Biology was published eight years later. The sixth edition currently is used by the two courses for majors at Cornell. The book has been translated into eight languages and is considered the most widely used science textbook in the world.

According to an obituary that appeared Oct. 31 in The New York Times, "Dr. Campbell single-handedly wrote the first four editions before being aided by co-authors. The seventh and latest edition of it is expected to be published in December by Benjamin Cummings and is written with Jane B. Reece."

Non-majors at Cornell use Biology Concepts and Connections, of which Campbell is a coauthor. Campbell also collaborated with his publisher in establishing The Biology Place http://www.biology.com as an innovative online initiative to support biology teachers and students.

It is estimated that Campbell's texts have been used by more than 5 million students since 1987 and that currently more than 500,000 students use his books each year.

Campbell was born in Culver City, Calif. He graduated from California State University-Long Beach, and received a master's in zoology at the University of California-Los Angeles, and a doctorate in biology from the University of California, Riverside.

He is survived by his wife, Rochelle, and his daughter, Allison.