Richard L. Hoffman
| Richard L. Hoffman | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
September 25, 1927 Clifton Forge, Virginia |
| Died | June 10, 2012 (aged 84) Roanoke, Virginia |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Diplopodology, entomology, herpetology |
| Institutions | Radford University, Virginia Museum of Natural History |
| Alma mater |
Virginia Tech (PhD) Cornell University (M.S.) |
| Doctoral advisor | Perry C. Holt |
| Known for | Millipede taxonomy and natural history of Virginia |
| Influences | Horton H. Hobbs, Jr., C. A. W. Jeekel |
 Virginia Museum of Natural History video featuring Dr. Hoffman, on YouTube
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Richard Lawrence Hoffman (September 25, 1927 – June 10, 2012) was an American zoologist known as an international expert on millipedes, and a leading authority on the natural history of Virginia and the Appalachian Mountains. He was a biology professor at Virginia's Radford College for almost thirty years, and curator of invertebrates at the Virginia Museum of Natural History for another twenty years. He co-founded the Virginia Natural History Society, described over 400 species of millipedes, and produced more than 480 scientific publications. He is commemorated in the scientific and/or common names of over 30 animal species, including the valley and ridge salamander (Plethodon hoffmani) and Hoffman's dwarf centipede (Nannarrup hoffmani).
Richard Hoffman was born in Clifton Forge, Virginia, on September 25, 1927. His father was a railroad machinist whose parents had emigrated from Germany in the late 1800s, and his mother was from a Virginia farming family. Hoffman’s scientific publications began at the age of 16, and by the age of 24 he had 29 publications. He attended the University of Virginia until 1950, where he was influenced by Horton H. Hobbs, Jr. a crustacean biologist and recently hired professor. Unable to complete a freshman math class, Hoffman did not complete a degree at Virginia. Rather, in 1951 he was accepted into graduate school at Cornell University, who accepted his publication record as equivalent to passing a math class. When not working in the field or at Cornell, Hoffman worked as a chemist at the Radford Arsenal. He completed his a M.S. in entomology in 1959, and went on to earn a PhD in Zoology from Virginia Tech in 1960, during which he revised the genus Cambarincola, a group of leech-like oligochaete worms that are commensal on crayfish. His doctoral advisor at Virginia Tech was Dr. Perry C. Holt.
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