Charles Henry Turner

Charles Henry Turner (1867 to 1923) was an American zoologist, entomologist, educator and comparative psychologist, known for his studies of the behaviour of insects, particularly bees and ants. Born in Cincinnati, he was the first African American to receive a graduate degree at the University of Cincinnati and the first African American to earn a PhD from the University of Chicago, in 1907. He spent most of his career as a high school teacher at Sumner High School in St. Louis. Turner was one of the first scientists to examine systematically whether animals display complex cognition, studying arthropods such as spiders and bees, and he also examined differences in behaviour between individuals within a species, a precursor to the study of animal personality.