Peter Marler | |
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Born |
Slough, England |
February 24, 1928
Died | July 5, 2014 Davis, California |
(aged 86)
Institutions | University of California, Davis |
Alma mater | |
Theses | |
Notable awards |
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Peter Robert Marler ForMemRS (February 24, 1928 – July 5, 2014) was a British-born American ethologist known for his research on animal language and the science of bird song. A 1964 Guggenheim Fellow, he was emeritus professor of neurobiology, physiology and ethology at the University of California, Davis.
Born in Slough, England, Marler graduated from University College London with a BSc in 1948, and a Ph.D. in Botany in 1952. In 1954, he graduated from the University of Cambridge with a second Ph.D. in zoology.
From 1954 to 1956, he worked as a research assistant to William Homan Thorpe and Robert Hinde at Jesus College, Cambridge. In 1957, he became a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1966, he became a professor at Rockefeller University, in 1969 became director of the Institute for Research in Animal Behavior, a collaboration between the New York Zoological Society (now the Wildlife Conservation Society) and Rockefeller University and in 1972 became director of the Field Research Center for Ethology and Ecology.
In 1989, Marler became a professor at the University of California, Davis. He retired in 1994, but took over the management of the local Center for Animal Behavior from 1996 to 2000. He died on July 5, 2014 of pneumonia while his family was evacuated from his Winters home because of the nearby Monticello wildfire.