The life and research interests of John W. Murray

John W. Murray (1936–2021) was a pioneering micropalaeontologist and became a globally celebrated foraminiferal ecologist and an authority on the smaller benthic foraminifera of the UK and neighbouring areas. This interest developed at an early stage in his career, when he was working on the benthic foraminifera of Christchurch Harbour (Dorset, UK). Despite several career moves (Marine Biological Association of the UK in Plymouth, Bristol University, Exeter University, Southampton University), benthic foraminifera remained his primary research focus, culminating in the authorship of a series of systematic and ecological textbooks that have proved to be invaluable to generations of students and the wider scientific community.