William Neil Eschmeyer (February 11, 1939 – December 30, 2024) was an American

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...

. He was the founder and developer of the database and reference work

Catalog of Fishes Catalog of Fishes is a comprehensive on-line database and reference work on the scientific names of fish species and genera. It is global in its scope and is hosted by the California Academy of Sciences. It has been compiled and is continuously up ...

, hosted by the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, that is among the largest List of natural history museums, museums of natural history in the world, housing over ...

and available both on-line and in print.

Biography

Eschmeyer was born in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...

, on February 11, 1939. His father, Reuben Eschmeyer, was the head of fisheries for the

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolin ...

. Eschmeyer took an undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Michigan, followed by a doctorate in Marine Biology at the University of Miami. In 1967 he moved to California and began work at the

in San Francisco, where he spent 40 years as curator of fishes. He was also a Research Associate at

Florida Museum of Natural History The Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) is Florida's official state-sponsored and chartered natural history museum. Its main facilities are located at 3215 Hull Road on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, Gaine ...

, Gainesville, Florida. After retiring he became Curator Emeritus at California Academy of Sciences. Eschmeyer died on December 30, 2024, at the age of 85. Eschmeyer was the founder of the

, a worldwide fish database. This work started with the publication of "Catalog of the Genera of Recent Fishes" in 1990. The first Catalog of Fishes followed in 1998, as three print volumes and a CD-ROM, and the database was subsequently moved online. The name was changed to as Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes in 2019. Eschmeyer also co-wrote a popular book on fish, the Peterson Field Guide to Pacific Coast Fishes, and published 61 research articles on fish taxonomy. Eschmeyer was awarded the Bleeker Award for Excellence in Indo-Pacific Ichthyology in 2009 for a “lifetime distinguished accomplishments and great contributions in the study of fish systematics in the Indo-Pacific region” and the Joseph S. Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award in Ichthyology from the American Society of Ichthyologists and herpetologists in 2019.

Legacy

The following fish are named in his honor:

References

* Poss, S.G. & Eschmeyer, W.N. 1980. Xenaploactis, a new genus for Prosopodasys asperrimus Günther (Pisces: Aploactinidae), with descriptions of two new species. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, (Series 4) 42(8), pages 287–293

External links

William N. Eschmeyer
at calacademy.org 1939 births 2024 deaths American ichthyologists People associated with the California Academy of Sciences People from Knoxville, Tennessee {{US-zoologist-stub

Biography

Legacy

See also

References

External links