- Career
- Personal life
- Bibliography
- References
- Sources
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix = Dr.
| name = Jennifer Owen
| honorific_suffix =
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| native_name =
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| birth_name = Jennifer Bak
| birth_date = c.1935
| birth_place = Leicester
| death_date =
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| nationality = British
| education = Oxford
| alma_mater =
| known_for = discovering new species of insect
| notable_works =}}Jennifer Owen (c.1935), discovered new species of insect and wrote numerous books on British wildlife. CareerJennifer Bak was born the daughter of F. A. Bak, a noted amateur ornithologist and Leicester based textile manufacturer.{{sfn | Informa UK Limited | 1934 | pp=P399–P400}}{{sfn | Fray | Davies | Gamble | Harrop | 2010 | p=537}} Owen went on to study zoology in Oxford where in 1955 as an undergraduate she met Denis Owen. They married after graduation in 1958 and she went to the University of Michigan to work as a teaching fellow and complete a research PhD on the study of wasps.{{sfn | Smith | 1996}}{{sfn | The Independent | 2010}} After the doctorate Owen took up teaching positions from 1962 in Makerere University, Uganda and Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone as well as Sweden. On her return to the department of zoology with University of Leicester in 1971 she noticed the huge number of insects in her garden in the United Kingdom compared to those in Africa and the study began.{{sfn | Mount | 2010}}{{sfn | The Independent | 2010}}{{sfn | Wlgf}}{{sfn | Owen | Owen | Chanter | 1972 | p=200}} Owen achieved the recording of ninety-one of the 256 species of hover flies in Britain in fourteen years.{{sfn | Pacific Horticulture Society | 2018}} in thirty years of study she recorded 2,204 insect species in her own garden while also finding 20 species new to Britain and six which were previously undescribed. She wrote a book on the study, Wildlife of a Garden: A Thirty-Year Study. As well as the insects she counted Owen grew over 400 different plant species to determine the best food for the insects being tracked.{{sfn | Atkins | Atkins | 2018 | p=58}}{{sfn | for biodiversity and people | 2014}}{{sfn | Gilbert | 2012 | p=112}}{{sfn | John | 2018 | p=222}}{{sfn | Transatlantic Gardener | 2011}}{{sfn | OWEN | TOWNES | TOWNES | 1981 | pp=315–336}}{{sfn | New Scientist}}{{sfn | Inglis-Arkell | 2011}} The garden, and home of Owen is in Leicester. She worked as a zoology museum curator and university lecturer, however she is now a wheelchair user due to the impact of multiple sclerosis.{{sfn | Mount | 2010}}{{sfn | The Independent | 2010}} Owen won the Veitch Memorial Medal for outstanding contribution to the advancement and improvement of the science and practice of horticulture in 2010.{{sfn | Horticulture Week | 2010}} Personal lifeOwen had a son and a daughter with Denis Owen. They divorced in 1994.{{sfn | Smith | 1996}} Bibliography- {{cite book | title=Suburban Gardens: England's Most Important Nature Reserve? | year=1975 | url=https://books.google.ie/books?id=0yY_twAACAAJ }}
- {{cite book | title=Feeding Strategy | publisher=University of Chicago Press | series=Phoenix books | year=1982 | isbn=978-0-226-64186-7 | url=https://books.google.ie/books?id=NLpXSf8WaQsC }}
- {{cite book | title=Mysteries and Marvels of Insect Life | publisher=EDC Publishing | series=Mysteries and Marvels Series | year=1985 | isbn=978-0-88110-173-7 | url=https://books.google.ie/books?id=-ecsPqYgUkIC }}
- {{cite book | title=More Mysteries and Marvels of Nature | publisher=Usborne Publishing, Limited | year=1984 | isbn=978-0-86020-856-3 | url=https://books.google.ie/books?id=Q84LNAmh-kMC}}
- {{cite book | title=The Ecology of a Garden: The First Fifteen Years | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1991 | isbn=978-0-521-34335-0 | url=https://books.google.ie/books?id=Lus6zV5ihwcC&pg=PA15 }}
- {{cite book | title=Wildlife of a Garden: A Thirty-year Study | publisher=Royal Horticultural Society | year=2010 | isbn=978-1-907057-12-0 | url=https://books.google.ie/books?id=_1yZYgEACAAJ }}
ReferencesSources- {{cite web | title=Garden Allies: Hover Flies | website=Pacific Horticulture Society | date=2018-11-14 | url=https://www.pacifichorticulture.org/articles/hover-flies/ | ref={{sfnref | Pacific Horticulture Society | 2018}} | access-date=2018-11-14}}
- {{cite book | last=Gilbert | first=F. | title=Insect Life Cycles: Genetics, Evolution and Co-ordination | publisher=Springer London | year=2012 | isbn=978-1-4471-3464-0 | url=https://books.google.ie/books?id=yRHSBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA112 | ref=harv | access-date=2018-11-14}}
- {{cite web | title=CJS Focus on the Urban Environment: Wildlife Gardening | website=for biodiversity and people | date=2014-11-24 | url=https://www.countryside-jobs.com/Focus/Articles/wildlife-gardening-biodiversity-people-wildlife-gardening-forum-1114_6.html | ref={{sfnref | for biodiversity and people | 2014}} | access-date=2018-11-14}}
- {{cite book | last=John | first=P. | title=The story of Alderley: Living with the Edge | publisher=Manchester University Press | year=2018 | isbn=978-1-5261-3188-1 | url=https://books.google.ie/books?id=eBJbDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA222 | ref=harv | access-date=2018-11-14}}
- {{cite web | last=Smith | first=David A.S. | title=Obituary: Denis Owen | website=The Independent | date=1996-10-24 | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-denis-owen-1359897.html | ref=harv | access-date=2018-11-14}}
- {{cite web | title=Native plants are not always best for native insects | website=Transatlantic Gardener | date=2011-04-15 | url=https://www.transatlanticplantsman.com/transatlantic_plantsman/2011/04/alien-plants-are-better-for-insects-than-natives-its-official.html | ref={{sfnref | Transatlantic Gardener | 2011}} | access-date=2018-11-14}}
- {{cite journal | last=OWEN | first=JENNIFER | last2=TOWNES | first2=HENRY | last3=TOWNES | first3=MARJORIE | title=Species diversity of Ichneumonidae and Serphidae (Hymenoptera) in an English suburban garden | journal=Biological Journal of the Linnean Society | publisher=Oxford University Press (OUP) | volume=16 | issue=4 | year=1981 | issn=0024-4066 | doi=10.1111/j.1095-8312.1981.tb01656.x | pages=315–336 | ref=harv}}
- {{cite web | title=Review: Only time separates a garden from a nature reserve | website=New Scientist | url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13217914-800-review-only-time-separates-a-garden-from-a-nature-reserve/ | ref={{sfnref | New Scientist}} | access-date=2018-11-14}}
- {{cite web | last=Inglis-Arkell | first=Esther | title=The story of the woman who discovered new species in her garden | website=io9 | date=2011-09-17 | url=https://io9.gizmodo.com/5841287/the-story-of-the-woman-who-discovered-new-species-in-her-garden | ref=harv | access-date=2018-11-14}}
- {{cite web | title=Me and my garden: How Jennifer Owen became an unlikely champion of | website=The Independent | date=2010-11-12 | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/me-and-my-garden-how-jennifer-owen-became-an-unlikely-champion-of-british-wildlife-2131712.html | ref={{sfnref | The Independent | 2010}} | access-date=2018-11-14}}
- {{cite book | last=Fray | first=R. | last2=Davies | first2=R. | last3=Gamble | first3=D. | last4=Harrop | first4=A. | last5=Lister | first5=S. | title=The Birds of Leicestershire and Rutland | publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing | series=Helm County Avifauna | year=2010 | isbn=978-1-4081-3311-8 | url=https://books.google.ie/books?id=sBfSBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA537 | ref=harv | access-date=2018-11-14}}
- {{cite journal | title=New Members of the Institute | journal=Journal of the Textile Institute Proceedings | publisher=Informa UK Limited | volume=25 | issue=11 | year=1934 | issn=1944-7019 | doi=10.1080/19447013408663712 | pages=P399–P400 | ref={{sfnref | Informa UK Limited | 1934}}}}
- {{cite web | title=RHS awards five Victoria Medals of Honour | website=Horticulture Week | date=2010-07-07 | url=https://www.hortweek.com/rhs-awards-five-victoria-medals-honour/landscape/article/1014778 | ref={{sfnref | Horticulture Week | 2010}} | access-date=2018-11-14}}
- {{cite web |title=Jennifer Owen's Studies|author= Dr Ken Thompson|website=Wildlife gardening forum|url=http://www.wlgf.org/Jennifer%20Owens%20studies.pdf|| ref={{sfnref| Wlgf| access-date=2018-11-14}}}}
- {{cite book | last=Atkins | first=J. | last2=Atkins | first2=B. | title=Around the World in 80 Species: Exploring the Business of Extinction | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2018 | isbn=978-0-429-79390-5 | url=https://books.google.ie/books?id=2OV3DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT58 | ref=harv | access-date=2018-11-14}}
- {{cite journal | last=Owen | first=D. F. | last2=Owen | first2=Jennifer | last3=Chanter | first3=D. O. | title=Seasonal Changes in Relative Abundance and Estimates of Species Diversity in a Family of Tropical Butterflies | journal=Oikos | publisher=JSTOR | volume=23 | issue=2 | year=1972 | issn=0030-1299 | doi=10.2307/3543406 | page=200 | ref=harv}}
{{Authority control}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Owen, Jennifer}} 9 : Year of birth uncertain|20th-century zoologists|Alumni of the University of Oxford|English ecologists|English non-fiction writers|University of Michigan alumni|English women writers|Living people|Year of birth missing (living people) |