ABOVE: John Pearse (standing, right) at work in the field
CHRIS BRATT
John Pearse, whose long career included some of the earliest marine biology research at Antarctica’s McMurdo Station and studies in more temperate ecosystems off the coast of California, died on July 31 at age 84. According to a University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), obituary, he had been in hospice after undergoing cancer treatment and having a stroke.
“It’s amazing how many people John touched,” James McClintock, a marine biologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who studied with Pearse, tells The Scientist. “John had this infective ability to get you excited about the science and do it in a way that he wasn’t talking down to you—he was edging you up and getting you to think about intriguing questions.”
Pearse was born in Boise, Idaho, according to UCSC. He later told the educational website Shape of Life ...
