Marvalee Wake facts for kids

Marvalee Hendricks Wake (born July 31, 1939) is an American zoologist and professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She is famous for her studies on caecilians. These are amazing limbless amphibians that look a bit like worms or snakes. She also studies how vertebrates (animals with backbones) develop and change over time.

Marvalee Wake has received many honors. She was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1988. She has also led several important scientific groups. These include the American Institute of Biological Sciences and the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

About Marvalee Wake's Life

Marvalee Hendricks was born in Orange, California on July 31, 1939. She went to the University of Southern California (USC) for her college degrees. She earned her Ph.D. in 1968. Her teacher was a reptile and amphibian expert named Jay M. Savage.

While at USC, she met and married another biologist, David B. Wake. They later had a son. Marvalee Wake started as a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Later, she and her husband moved to the University of California, Berkeley. There, David became the director of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Marvalee became a professor and quickly moved up. She even became the head of the Department of Zoology. She officially retired in 2003. However, she still actively does research at UC Berkeley.

Marvalee Wake's Research and Discoveries

Marvalee Wake is known as a top expert on caecilians. These are a group of amphibians that don't have limbs. Her research has looked at how these creatures grow, how they reproduce, and their body structure. She has also studied how they have changed over time. Her work has made many scientists around the world more interested in caecilians. Before her research, not many people studied them.

In her early work, she looked at how caecilian bodies are different for reproduction. In 1972, she helped find the first proof of caecilians in the fossil record. This showed how old these animals are.

Contributions to Morphology

Marvalee Wake is also known for her work in morphology. Morphology is the study of the form and structure of living things. Another biologist, Brian K. Hall, said that Marvalee Wake has always pushed for teaching morphology. She sees it as a modern science that helps us understand evolution.

Since 1975, she has worked with her husband, David Wake. He is an expert on salamanders. Even though they work together, they have their own labs and students.

Publications and Books

Marvalee Wake has written or co-written over 200 science articles and book chapters. She also helped update a famous textbook called Hyman's Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy. She co-edited a general biology textbook called Biology (1979). She also co-edited a scholarly book about how different animal forms develop, called The Origin and Evolution of Larval Forms (1999).

Awards and Honors

Marvalee Wake has received many honors for her work. In 2014, she got the Henry S. Fitch Award for Excellence in Herpetology. This award is from the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists.

She is also remembered in the names of some animals. A type of caecilian is named after her: Microcaecilia marvaleewakeae. A frog group, Wakea, is named after both her and her husband. A lizard, Cyrtodactylus wakeorum (Wakes' gecko), is also named after them. In 2005, a special collection of papers was published in the journal Zoology to honor her.

Since 2013, Marvalee Wake has been part of the Advisory Council for the National Center for Science Education. This group helps promote good science education. She has also guided many students. She advised 17 students working on their doctoral degrees and 15 post-doctoral students.