John E. McCosker

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John Edward McCosker (born November 17, 1945 in Los Angeles , California ) is an American ichthyologist . He was the longstanding executive director of the California Academy of Sciences .

Life

McCosker is the son of Joseph Samuel and Betty Eleanor McCosker, nee Hoyt. In 1967 he obtained a Bachelor of Arts from Occidental College in Los Angeles, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1987 . From 1970 to 1971 he was a research fellow in ichthyology at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama . In 1973 he was at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla , San Diego , California, with the dissertation The osteology, classification, and relationships of the eel family Ophichthidae (Pisces, Anguilliformes) for Ph.D. PhD in marine biology . After Earl S. Herald died in a diving accident in January 1973, McCosker took over the administration of the Steinhart Aquarium of the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and from 1976 the post of director, which he held until 1994. From 1976 to 1986 he was executive director of the California Academy of Sciences. From 1980 to 1983 he directed the public program of the California Academy of Sciences. He was interim executive director of the California Academy of Sciences from 1988 to 1989 and again in 1994. From 1991 to 1993 he was executive director of the finance department of the California Academy of Sciences. Since 1995, he has been Senior Scientist and Chair of the Aquatic Biology Department at the California Academy of Sciences.

McCosker's main interests are the evolution and behavior of snake eels and moray eels , the evolution and the community structure of reef fish collections in the eastern Pacific, the biology and systematics of the Galapagos coastal fish, the care of mesopelagic animals in the aquarium, the behavior of sea snakes, solar energy applications in aquarium design and the biology of primitive fish. McCosker undertook 24 expeditions, including to Antarctica, Australia, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, South and Central America, 1975 to the Comoros, where he was able to purchase two frozen specimens of the coelacanth and in 1980 to the coast of South Australia, where he the biology of the Great White sharks studied. From 1977 he undertook ten expeditions to the Galapagos Islands, where he could observe unknown sharks, eels, rays and scorpion fish, including 35 species of fish that are only found in the waters off Galapagos. In 1996 and 1999 the documentary films Galapagos: Beyond Darwin and Galapagos by filmmaker Al Giddings were made , in which McCosker participated.

McCosker is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science , the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, the Society for the Protection of Old Fishes, the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the Ocean Trust Foundation, the Bolinas Lagoon Foundation, and the Oceanic Society . He has been married since 1970.

Dedication names

After McCosker the fish species are Eptatretus mccoskeri , Gymnothorax mccoskeri , Hydrolagus mccoskeri , Myxine mccoskeri , Neenchelys mccoskeri , Ogilbia mccoskeri , Paracheilinus mccoskeri , Protoblepharon mccoskeri , Spicomacrurus mccoskeri , Phenacoscorpius mccoskeri , Ophichthus johnmccoskeri , Ophichthus mccoskeri and the genus Mccoskerichthys named.

literature

  • Who's Who in the West , Marquis Who's Who, LLC, 1982-1983 Edition, Volume 18, 1982, p. 483
  • John E McCosker. In: American Men & Women of Science: A Biographical Directory of Today's Leaders in Physical, Biological, and Related Sciences, Gale, 2008. Biography in Context. Online . Retrieved January 28, 2017.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John E McCosker. In: American Men & Women of Science: A Biographical Directory of Today's Leaders in Physical, Biological, and Related Sciences, Gale, 2008. Biography in Context. Online . Retrieved January 28, 2017.
  2. ^ Who's Who in the West, Marquis Who's Who, LLC, 1982-1983 edition, Volume 18, 1982, p. 483
personal data
SURNAME McCosker, John E.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES McCosker, John Edward (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American ichthyologist
DATE OF BIRTH November 17, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California