Among the Academies: A Lifelong Fascination with Fish
For Peter Wainwright, the academic path was simple: he simply followed his fascination with fish.
"I dare say there wasn't a lot of deep thought about what direction I should go in my life," he said. "It was more, I like fish, let's see if I can do something with fish. It was all very organic."
Wainwright, a distinguished professor emeritus of evolution and ecology, has dedicated his career to understanding how fish feed and how fish feeding methods evolved. He joined UC Davis in 1999 after four years on the faculty at Florida State University. In honor of the fundamental insights that he provided into the mechanics and evolution of fish feeding, he was elected to the California Academy of Sciences in 2010 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015.
Fish first caught Wainwright's attention as a child, when he visited coral reefs with his father, who was also a biologist. When he discovered fishing as a teenager, it only increased his interest in fish. And after more than 40 years studying fish, he's still captivated by them.
"It's on coral reefs where fish do their most magnificent things," said Wainwright. "There's just an endless supply of interesting behaviors and feeding ecology."