E. Alison Kay (1928 – 9 June 2008) was a malacologist,

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

, and

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

at the University of Hawaii. She was born in 'Ele'ele and grew up on the island of

Kauai Kauai, () anglicized as Kauai ( ), is geologically the second-oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands (after Niʻihau). With an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), it is the fourth-largest of these islands and the 21st largest island ...

in the

Territory of Hawaii The Territory of Hawaii or Hawaii Territory ( Hawaiian: ''Panalāʻau o Hawaiʻi'') was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from April 30, 1900, until August 21, 1959, when most of its territory, excluding ...

, graduated from

Punahou School Punahou School (known as Oahu College until 1934) is a private, co-educational, college preparatory school in Honolulu, Hawaii. More than 3,700 students attend the school from kindergarten through twelfth grade, 12th grade. Protestant missionar ...

in 1946, and obtained her first B.A. from

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...

in 1950."Family-placed obituary," ''Honolulu Advertiser,'' 19 June 2008 She then went on to earn another B.A. in 1952 and an M.A. in 1956 from

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

as a

Fulbright scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

before returning to the University of Hawaii, where she completed her dissertation in 1957."Isle scientist loved the environment," ''Honolulu Star-Bulletin,'' 12 June 2008 She is best known for her work, ''Hawaiian Marine Shells'' (1979).

Career

Her research focused on

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

mollusks Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

in the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

region, and she regularly offered a graduate course in

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

and

systematics Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: cladograms, phylogenetic tre ...

, and another in

biogeography Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...

, emphasizing in particular the

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

and distribution of island mollusks. Her dissertation was on

cowrie shell Cowrie or cowry () is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries. The term ''porcelain'' derives from the old Italian term for the cowrie shell (''porcellana'') du ...

s and '' Cypraea alisonae'' was named for her. She believed strongly in general education, was assigned to the Dept. of General Science until 1982 (when she moved to Zoology), and was one of the most engaging lecturers in the large survey courses taught at the Varsity Theater off-campus.Robert M. Kamins and Robert E. Potter, ''Mālamalama: A History of the University of Hawaii'' (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998), pp. 91-94. In later years, she taught a popular course in the natural history of the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kur ...

, for which she edited a textbook in 1994. She also served at various times as dean of graduate students, as department head, and as a member of the Faculty Senate. She was the longest-serving editor in chief of the journal ''

Pacific Science ''Pacific Science'' is a quarterly multidisciplinary peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the biological and physical sciences of the Pacific basin, focusing especially on biogeography, ecology, evolution, geology and volcanology, oceanograph ...

'', overseeing almost every issue between 1972 and 2000. Active in many environmental projects, she helped found the Save Diamond Head Association, conducted research on the effects of the

atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

in the

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Internati ...

, and did pioneering research on micromollusks for biomonitoring. Her research on the ecology of opihi ( limpets) helped shape state regulations limiting opihi collection.

Selected works

* 1996. An atlas of Cowrie Radulae (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Cypraeoidea: Cypraeidae). Festivus v. 28, Suppl., 179 pp.(with Hugh Bradner). * 1994. ''A Natural History of the Hawaiian Islands: Selected Readings II'' (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press), . * 1991. ''Shells of Hawaii'' (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press) (with Olive Schoenberg-Dole), . * 1991. The marine mollusks of the Galapagos: Determinants of insular marine fauna," in ''Galapagos Marine Invertebrates'' (New York: Plenum Press), 235-252. * 1990. "The Cypraeidae of the Indo-Pacific: Cenozoic phylogeny and biogeography," ''Bulletin of Marine Science'' 47: 23–24. * 1987. "Endemism and evolution in Hawaiian Marine invertebrates," ''Trends in Ecology and Evolution'' 2:183-186 (with Steve Palumbi). * 1987. "The Mollusca of Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands," in ''The Natural History of Enewetak Atoll'' (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Energy) (with S. Johnson). * 1984. "Patterns of speciation in the Indo-West Pacific," in ''Biogeography of the Tropical Pacific'' (Association of Systematics Collections and B.P. Bishop Museum), pp. 15–31. * 1980. "Little worlds of the Pacific: An essay on Pacific Basin biogeography," Harold L. Lyon Arboretum, University of Hawaii, Lecture No. 9, pp. 1–40. * 1979. ''Hawaiian Marine Shells: Reef and Shore Fauna of Hawaii, Section 4: Mollusca'' (Honolulu: B.P. Bishop Museum Press). * 1978. Molluscan distribution patterns at Canton Atoll. ''Atoll Research Bulletin'' No. 221: 160–169.

References

External links

Honolulu Star-Bulletin obituary, 12 June 2008

Honolulu Advertiser obituary, 19 June 2008

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kay, E. Alison 1928 births 2008 deaths American malacologists People from Kauai County, Hawaii Punahou School alumni University of Hawaiʻi faculty 20th-century American zoologists Mills College alumni Alumni of the University of Cambridge American expatriates in the United Kingdom Biologists from Hawaii