PULLMAN, Wash. — A 1957 Washington State University graduate who has devoted his professional life to higher education has received the WSU Alumni Achievement Award.
John F. Eisenberg of Gainesville, Fla., was honored for “a distinguished career of more than 40 years in zoology and wildlife conservation as a respected researcher, teacher and author.”
Since 1982, he has been the Ordway Professor of Ecosystems Conservation at the University of Florida. In 1988, he added another responsibility as director of the university’s Center for Biological Conservation. For nearly 17 years, he also has been associated with the Florida Museum of Natural History at the university. During that time, he has published two books on the Mammals of the Neotropics. A 1,000-page manuscript is presently at the press and he is preparing another book.
The Everett native earned Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa honors at WSU. He holds two advanced degrees from the University of California, Berkeley
— a master’s degree in zoology and physiology, and a doctorate in zoology and psychology.
In 1958-59, Eisenberg received a predoctoral fellowship from the National Science Foundation. He earned a National Research Council fellowship from the National Academy of Sciences for 1960-62.
Much of his early research was devoted to the social behavior of rodents. From 1965 to 1973, he was resident scientist at the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C., where he held the positions of general curator and acting assistant director during different periods. He also was assistant director for animal programs at the National Zoological Park and the Smithsonian Institution.
Earlier in his career, Eisenberg taught zoology at the University of British Columbia and at the University of Maryland, College Park. He also was an associate with the Department of Mental Hygiene at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Eisenberg is a member of several professional societies, including the American Society of Mammalogists, the American Society of Zoologists and the Association for Tropical Biology.
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