- Waldo L. Schmitt
Waldo LaSalle Schmitt (1887-1977) was an American Biologist born in
Washington, D.C. He received his Ph.D. fromGeorge Washington University in 1922. In 1948, he received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from theUniversity of Southern California . Schmitt's primary field of zoological investigation was carcinology, with special emphasis on the decapodcrustacean s (crabs, lobsters, shrimp, and so on). His bibliography consists of more than seventy titles.Curriculum:
*Schmitt was an Aide in Economic Botany for the
U.S. Department of Agriculture (1907-1910).
*Appointed Scientific Aide in the Division of Marine Invertebrates of the United States National Museum.
*Studied crustacea with Mary Jane Rathbun.
*Served on the staff of the United States Bureau of Fisheries as Scientific Assistant
*Naturalist aboard the Albatross (1911 – 1914). Assistant Curator at the United States National Museum as in the Division of Marine Invertebrates (1915 – 1920).
*Instructor of Zoology at George Washington University (1917).
*Named Curator of the Division of Marine Invertebrates (1920-1943)
*Head Curator of the Department of Biology (1943).
*Head Curator ofZoology (1943-1957).
*Honorary Research Associate and continued his association with the Smithsonian Institution until his death on 5 August 1977.Biological expeditions:
*1918 studying the life history of the
spiny lobster at the Scripps Institution,La Jolla, California .
*1924 - 1925, was at theCarnegie Institution 's Marine Laboratory atTortugas, Florida , surveying the crustacean fauna of the area, identifying crustaceans found in the stomachs of fishes.
*1925, awarded the Smithsonian's Walter Rathbone Bacon Traveling Scholarship "for the study of thefauna of countries other than the United States." The scholarship enabled him to collect marineinvertebrate s along the east coast ofSouth America .
*1933 - 1935, to theGalapagos Islands sponsored by G. Allan Hancock ofLos Angeles, California .
*1937, a guest of G. Huntington Hartford, he explored and collected in theWest Indies on the Smithsonian-Hartford West Indies Expedition.
* 1938, accompanied PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt as naturalist on the Presidential Cruise toClipperton, Cocos , and the Galapagos Islands.
*1939, member of the Hancock South America Expedition and
*1940 Biologist in charge of field operations on the firstUnited States Fish and Wildlife Service Alaska King Crab Investigation.
*1941 -1942, on special detail with the United States Navy investigating the possibility of establishing a biological station in the Galapagos Islands.
*1943, visited South America, under the auspices of theState Department , for the purpose of strengthening relations between United States andLatin American scientists.
*1955, headed the Smithsonian-BredinBelgian Congo Expedition.
*1956 -1960 led Bredin sponsored expeditions to theCaribbean (1956, 1958, 1959), theSociety Islands (1957), and theYucatan (1960).
*1961 -1962 Sponsored by a grant from the Office of Naval Research, Schmitt spent the summers of with Harry Pederson photographing thecoral reef fauna of theBahamas Islands.
*1962-1963, his last expedition - member of the Survey of the United StatesAntarctic Research Program.Participation in Scientific Societies:
*Founding member of the Society of Systematic Zoology and served as president in 1948.
*President of the Washington Academy of Sciences in 1947.
*Trustee of the Bear's Bluff Laboratories,
*Trustee of the International Oceanographic Foundation
*Trustee of the Serological Museum of Rutgers University.Biographies:
*
Richard E. Blackwelder , "The Zest for Life, or Waldo Had a Pretty Good Run: The Life of Waldo LaSalle Schmitt" (Lawrence, Kansas: The Allen Press, Inc., 1979)
*Fenner A. Chace, Jr., "Waldo LaSalle Schmitt, 25 June 1887 - 5 August 1977,"Crustaceana , 1978, vol. 34, pt. 1, pp. 83-90;
*John Sherwood, "Uncle Waldo Still Hears the Call of Crustaceans," The Washington Star, January 11, 1977.External links
* [http://www.si.edu/archives/archives/findingaids/faru7231.htm Smithsonian Institution Archives]
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