Nationality American Spouse Marvalee Wake Role Professor | Name David Wake Fields Zoology | |
Institutions Museum of Vertebrate ZoologyUniversity of California, BerkeleyUniversity of Chicago Alma mater University of Southern CaliforniaPacific Lutheran University Thesis Comparative osteology and evolution of the lungless salamanders, family Plethodontidae (1964) Books Brief History of Herpetology in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, with a List of Type Specimens of Recent Amphibians and Reptiles People also search for Pedro Alberch i Vie, George F. Oster, Stephen Jay Gould | ||
The Global Amphibian Biodiversity Crisis
David Burton Wake (born June 8, 1936, Webster, South Dakota) is emeritus professor of integrative biology and former Director and curator of herpetology of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley. Wake is known for his work on the biology and evolution of salamanders as well as general issues of vertebrate evolutionary biology. He has served as president of the Society for the Study of Evolution, the American Society of Naturalists, and American Society of Zoologists. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Linnean Society of London, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and in 1998 was elected into the National Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the 2006 Leidy Award from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. He is married to the biologist Marvalee Wake. Wake is commemorated in the names of the salamander Cryptotriton wakei (Wake's moss salamander), the skink genus Davewakeum, the frog genus Wakea, and the lizard Cyrtodactylus wakeorum (Wakes' gecko)—the latter two named jointly after him and his wife.
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Early life and education
David Wake was born in Webster, South Dakota, on June 8, 1936, and grew up in nearby Pierpont, a small town in Day County, South Dakota. His mother was a high school biology teacher. He cites as a strong influence his maternal grandfather, a Lutheran pastor and amateur naturalist who took David on botanical walks and introduced him to Latin terminology and evolutionary principles. When Wake was in high school his family moved to Washington state where he completed high school and enrolled in Pacific Lutheran College, declaring a history major and considering a career in law. He soon decided to become a biologist instead, graduating in 1958, and chose to pursue graduate school at the University of Southern California under Jay M. Savage. He chose salamanders as a model of how species diversify, earning an M.S. in 1960 and PhD in 1964: writing his doctoral dissertation on the biology of lungless salamanders (family Plethodontidae).
During his time as a graduate student, Wake met his future wife, Marvalee, who was a student in a course he taught. She also became a graduate student in the Savage lab, and David married her in 1962.
Career
Wake was hired by the University of Chicago in 1964, where he worked 1969, when he was hired as faculty member of UC Berkeley and curator of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. He served as director of the MVZ from 1971 to 1998.