[Coral-List] FW: Passing of Dr. Howard Lenhoff on behalf of Clay Cook

[Szmant, Alina]

Dear all,
It is with sadness, that I note the passing of Howard Lenhoff on July 12, 2011. His research on hydra focused on many aspects of hydra biology.  With his post-doc's at the Laboratory for Quantitative Biology at the University of Miami -- Len Muscatine and Berton Roffman - symbiosis work on green hydra set a model for research on the cellular and molecular interactions between corals / invertebrates and Symbiodinium.  These classic papers, together with those by Ted Pardy (his colleague at UC Irvine) and the green hydra papers from the Muscatine and David Smith labs are well worth revisiting in the context of our current state of knowledge.

In 1967, Howard and Len, together with Lary Davis of the University of Hawaii, offered an NSF-funded graduate course on Experimental Coelenterate Biology at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB). Most of the students in the course went on to coral / Symbiodinium research.  Among these were Alina Szmant, Vicki Buchsbaum Pearse, Denny Powers, Ted Pardy, Conrad Clausen, Steve Young and myself. Eric Eisenstadt went on to a career in public health that culminated in his appointment as Vice President for Research at the J. Craig Venter Institute. The course became a model for the subsequent series of HIMB summer courses supported by the Pauley Foundation.

Howie enjoyed a long academic career at UC Irvine, and was a Visiting Professor at the University of Mississippi at the time of his death.  He authored 12 books and more than 200 papers. His humanitarian efforts were as significant as his scientific ones, as he spearheaded causes for Ethiopian Jews, for individuals with Williams' Syndrome, and most recently, for the education of underprivileged kids in the Mississippi Delta. He was a unique individual who will be missed by all who knew him.

I thank Tammy Goulet  and Vicki Pearse for their comments on this piece.

Regards,

Clay

Clayton B. Cook, Ph. D.
Affiliate Professor of Biology
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University
5600 US 1 North
Ft. Pierce, FL  34946

(772) 242-2301
(772) 579-0599 (cell)
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Dr. Alina M. Szmant
Professor of Marine Biology
Coral Reef Research Program, Center for Marine Science
University of North Carolina Wilmington
5600 Marvin K. Moss Lane
Wilmington NC 28409
Tel:  (910)962-2362; fax: (910)962-2410;  cell:  (910)200-3913
http://people.uncw.edu/szmanta
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